Murukan S Theruvoram

Founder

Murukan S Theruvoram is the founder of Theruvoram (2007)[1], an Indian non-profit working on human rights, elderly, mental health and hunger from Kochi.

Murukan S Theruvoram, also written S. Murugan, is an Indian social worker from Kerala and the founder of Theruvoram, an organisation that rescues and rehabilitates homeless people — street children, destitute elderly people, women and people with disabilities — across the state. He worked for years as an autorickshaw driver in Kochi while carrying out rescues, and the organisation takes its name from the Malayalam word for the roadside.

Early life and education

Murukan was born in Kerala to parents who worked as day labourers on a tea plantation, descendants of migrants from Tamil Nadu. The family was poor and he worked as a child. He attended St Pius X English School at Kuttikanam but had to leave because of the cost, and later obtained a tenth-standard certificate through the National Open School. He spent part of his own childhood on the streets before being taken in by a social worker he has named as Brother Mavooris and placed in an orphanage — an experience he has cited as the reason for his later work. He also boxed competitively, winning the sub-junior title at the 1996 All Kerala Amateur Boxing Championship.

Career

Before starting his own organisation Murukan worked for about six years with Childline in Kochi. He founded Theruvoram on 24 January 2007, reportedly with 153 rupees to his name, and ran rescues from his autorickshaw. The organisation provides shelter, medical care, repatriation, rescue services, help with deaths and burials, sponsorship and counselling, and states that it operates without government grants or funds.

In 2013 Theruvoram entered a partnership with the Government of Kerala for the 'Theruvu Velicham' street-dwellers programme, inaugurated by the then chief minister Oommen Chandy; the organisation describes it as the first collaboration of its kind between an NGO and the state. Theruvoram has since worked across most districts of Kerala, and in 2018 Murukan bought a plot at Alappuzha and raised money through the crowdfunding platform Milaap to build a permanent shelter. The organisation reports having rescued and rehabilitated tens of thousands of people since its founding.

Recognition

Murukan received a national award for child welfare from the then President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, at Rashtrapati Bhavan. In 2016 he received the Times Now Amazing Indians award, presented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.[2][3][4][5]

Theruvoram

Theruvoram, founded in Kochi in 2007 by former street child and autorickshaw driver S. Murugan, rescues destitute, sick and mentally ill people abandoned on Kerala's streets and reunites them with families or moves them into care. Its round-the-clock rescue work, feeding programmes and shelter support have made it one of Kerala's best-known street-rescue organisations, honoured with state awards for its service to street children.

Theruvoram reports the following, on its own site:

Theruvu Velicham Rescues Reach 1,000
A pavement dweller from the streets of Thrissur became the 1,000th inmate at the Government-NGO temporary shelter in Kakkanad.
My organisation Theruvoram is one among the 2288 orphanages functioning in Kerala .At present our services are in 5 districts - Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kottayam,Idukki and Alappuzha.