Deepak Vishwakarma

Vishwakarma grew up in the suburbs of Mumbai and worked as an interior designer. He has said his involvement in social work began in 2014 after he saw a family searching for food in rubbish near an orphanage. In 2015 he registered Making The Difference as a charitable trust at Mira Road, near Mumbai, starting with a small group of volunteers.

Making The Difference works on hunger, education, health, women's welfare and the environment. Its programmes include Project Lajja on menstrual health and hygiene and GyanDaan, an education initiative, and it has expanded to work in several Indian cities and states with corporate CSR partners.

During the second wave of COVID-19 in April and May 2021, Vishwakarma set up twenty Oxygen Connect Centres across Maharashtra. The organisation says it distributed 761 small and 250 large oxygen cylinders free of charge, imported oxygen concentrators from Hong Kong, Singapore and China, coordinated more than 500 volunteers, and ran a plasma donation coordination programme. It also supplied beds, PPE kits, sanitiser, pulse oximeters and cylinders to government hospitals in the state.

After the pandemic Vishwakarma turned to environmental restoration, planting more than 65,000 trees using the Miyawaki method of dense urban afforestation, alongside waste management and beach clean-up work.

Vishwakarma was named an Oxygen Man by the television channel TV9 for his pandemic work and received numerous Covid warrior awards. In August 2025 he received the Times Now Amazing Indians Award in the environment and sustainability category, one of thirteen people recognised at a ceremony in New Delhi.[2][3][4][5]