This law student is a founder of two non-profits

UPES law student Ishanth Bansal with children supported by one of his NGOs

A team of geologists from the Energy Cluster, School of Advanced Engineering, at UPES Dehradun embarked on a comprehensive study to unravel the mystery behind the recent events in Joshimath and provide crucial insights for future mitigation and infrastructure development.

UPES law student Ishanth Bansal with children supported by one of his NGOs

Ishanth Bansal, a third-year law student at UPES, is the founder of two NGOs – ‘Shuruwat Foundation Uttarakhand’ and ‘Youth Warriors’. Through his education, he aspires to build a fair and equal society, where no one is deprived of their rights

For Ishanth Bansal, a third-year law student at UPES, the desire to study law stemmed from the drive to serve society. “I always aspired to give back to the community in the best way possible, and law seemed to be the correct choice for doing so,” he says. “Also, it is empowering to develop an expertise in the rules and regulations that govern us. Even though it is a challenging field, law enables us to understand how our society functions,” Ishanth adds.
 

Ishanth Bansal

Currently pursuing BBA LLB (H) with a specialisation in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), social work appealed to him at a young age. However, it was the turbulent time of Covid-19 waves that pushed him to start working on the ground. “During the successive waves, I heard of families losing their loved ones because of not getting proper medical care. I realised that this was not merely about the pandemic. People’s health is directly related to their lifestyle — nutrition, physical activity, weight management, and restorative sleep. The circumstances that developed during those days – which included an economic as well as a health crisis – propelled me to begin working for people,” says Ishanth.

Ishanth instituted two NGOs – ‘Shuruwat Foundation Uttarakhand’ in 2019 and ‘Youth Warriors’ in 2021.

‘Shuruwat Foundation Uttarakhand’ aims at people’s upliftment, environment conservation, and providing food to needy and underprivileged children. ‘Youth Warriors’ as the name suggests, works toward making the youth capable of raising their voice against the wrongs done to them or anyone they are aware of. “We are educating them not to be a mute spectator if any unfortunate incident happens in front of them. We are making them warriors because today’s youth are the leaders of tomorrow. We want to build a healthy environment by creating awareness so that no individual is deprived of their rights,” says Ishanth.

Setting up a foundation, however, was in itself a challenge. “We had to be meticulous and steadfast in our goals. Everything falls into place if one is dedicated. Sure, we did not foresee some challenges before starting our project. We also had our doubts. Will it be a success, or will all the effort go in vain? Are we going in the right direction? Will it affect our studies? However, as we started working towards it, we got more clarity,” he says.

Explaining how his foundations operate, Ishanth says, “We collect funds from people who want to donate. We regularly release fundraising posters through which people can easily reach out to us and donate. Also, the interns and the team work very hard in every way possible.”

He has a strong team comprising his peers from UPES: Abhishek Singh, Graphic Head; Deveshi Gupta and Unnati, Editorial Heads; Gurusha Muniyal, Event Management Head; Ritoja Bannerjee and Yash Tiwari, Public Relations Heads; Sakshi Kabra, Operation Head; Utsav Tarsolia, Sub-Head; Vivek Chandrasekar, Secretary; Anirudh Malik, Chidambara Sharma, and Harsh Chawdhary, Members.