Ajay Kumar’s 10-Year Journey With HRW

From Aimless Youth to Community Catalyst: Ajay Kumar’s 10-Year Journey With HRW

Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh — At 32, Ajay Kumar carries the weathered confidence of someone who has seen life’s harsh realities early and emerged stronger. Sitting in a modest office in Moradabad, surrounded by files documenting connections with over 500 families across the district’s rural expanse, Ajay’s journey reads like a script of redemption — one that began in the same dusty village lanes he now traverses as a change-maker.

Sixteen years ago, teenage Ajay lost his father. The pillar of the family gone, young Ajay found himself adrift. His mother, an ASHA worker earning barely enough to support three children, watched helplessly as her only son slipped away from studies and into the company of neighborhood boys with little direction and less ambition.

“I wasn’t bad, just lost,” Ajay reflects, his voice carrying no trace of self-pity. “Padhai mein mann nahi lagta tha (I couldn’t focus on studies). I had two sisters to think about, a mother working herself to exhaustion, and no idea what to do with my own life.”

What changed everything was an unexpected intervention — not from family, but from a fellow villager who had walked a different path.

Sumit Kumar, now the Founder and CEO of Hindu Rights Watch, grew up in the same village as Ajay. Where others saw a wayward youth wasting his potential, Sumit saw raw energy waiting to be channeled. He brought Ajay into his community welfare projects, not as charity, but as opportunity.

“Sumit bhaiya didn’t lecture me,” Ajay remembers. “He just said, ‘Come, work with me. Let’s see what you can do.’ That trust changed me.”

What followed were years of hands-on training. Ajay became Sumit’s assistant, learning the ropes of community development from the ground up — how to talk to villagers, how to understand their problems, how to navigate government systems, and most importantly, how to earn trust in communities where outsiders are viewed with suspicion.

A decade later, Ajay Kumar is the District Coordinator for Hindu Rights Watch in Moradabad, a position that reflects both his evolution and his impact.

Under three flagship programs — Arjuna, Durga, and Rishi Valmiki — Ajay has trained hundreds of young people, both boys and girls, across Moradabad district. His curriculum is practical and grounded: community development, government welfare schemes, and awareness about social issues including love jihad.

“These young people come from villages where information doesn’t reach easily,” Ajay explains. “Many don’t know about scholarships, pension schemes, or their basic rights. We bridge that gap.”

The numbers tell their own story. Over the past decade, Ajay has established direct connections with more than 500 families in the rural belt of Moradabad. These aren’t mere database entries — they’re relationships built through repeated visits, patient conversations, and tangible help with government schemes and documentation.

“Ajay bhaiya knows everyone in our village,” says a youth from a hamlet near Thakurdwara. “When my grandmother needed her widow pension, he sat with us for three hours helping fill forms. He doesn’t just come for programs and leave.”

Today, Ajay’s work with government schemes has also become a source of stable income — a far cry from the aimless teenager who once had no prospects. He helps families access welfare benefits, assists with documentation, and ensures that schemes actually reach the intended beneficiaries.

His mother, still working as an ASHA worker, watches her son’s transformation with quiet pride. Both his sisters are married and settled, supported through their education by Ajay’s earnings.

“Sometimes I think about what would have happened if Sumit bhaiya hadn’t believed in me,” Ajay says, looking out at the road that leads to the villages he serves. “Maybe I’d still be sitting idle in the village square. Instead, I’m helping others find their direction.”

In Moradabad’s rural landscape, where youth unemployment and lack of guidance create a vacuum easily filled by despair or misdirection, Ajay Kumar stands as living proof that one person’s faith can alter another’s destiny — and that changed lives can, in turn, change communities.