A boy in chains. A doctor who could not walk away.
Healstation was not founded in a boardroom. It was born on a foggy morning in 2019, in a village the world had quietly forgotten.
Picture this
Winter, 2019.
It was the winter of 2019, a foggy morning with the wind rustling softly through the bare, trembling leaves. A tribal village where electricity was a luxury, and mobile network a distant dream. Life here was both beautiful and heart-breaking.
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Beyond two dense forests and an unpredictable river that folds on itself almost seven times, time seemed to stand still and life moved at its own unhurried pace.
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Dr. Gaurav Kumar — a doctor by training, a writer and photographer by passion, and a mental health activist — was wandering in this village. He met a boy who changed the course of his life.
He was a young boy, around eight, his bright smile lighting up his face. He waved from afar — and then I saw the chain around his feet.
— Dr. Gaurav Kumar, Founder
In this moment, the idea of Healstation was born.
The Encounter
The chain that wasn't cruelty — it was helplessness.
The boy was around eight, his bright smile lighting up his face. He was trying to walk but couldn't, and waved from afar as he saw someone approaching. As Dr. Gaurav came closer, he realised the child had delayed development. But what shocked him was the chain around the boy's feet — heavy, crude, meant to hold him in place.
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"That's so inhuman," he thought. "How can the parents do that? It must be hurting him. Superstitions — they must be to blame."
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Then the boy's little sister ran to fetch their parents, and the truth hit Dr. Gaurav like a wave. The parents were daily wage labourers, barely earning enough to survive. They couldn't afford to stay home. They couldn't leave him unattended either. He had wandered into the jungle twice before, and each time, they had searched for him terrified he wouldn't return alive.
The Realisation
The world had forgotten these people.
"I didn't know what else to do," his mother said through tears. "We went to temples, to faith healers, even to a doctor. Nothing worked. I was scared for him. I couldn't lose him."
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The boy's chains weren't just physical — they were a symbol of the chains his family was bound by: poverty, stigma, helplessness. His mother didn't want to chain her son. She just didn't have another choice.
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In that moment, Dr. Gaurav realised something that would change the course of his life: the world had forgotten these people. The boy's smile haunted him long after he left the village.
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This wasn't just about one boy. How many more families were living with impossible choices? How many more children were being failed — not just by the healthcare system, but by society itself?
And thus, Healstation was born.
What we carry with us
Four beliefs we refuse to put down.
We see people, not cases
No one is a statistic. Every chain has a name, a story, a mother.
We go where no one goes
Past two forests and a river that folds on itself seven times.
We refuse to look away
Once you have seen a boy in chains, you cannot un-see him.
We stay
Showing up once is charity. Showing up always is change.
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Fellow — The Royal Society for Public Health (UK)
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Mint 40 under 40
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Gold Medallist, CMC Vellore
Dr. Gaurav Kumar
The Founder
Dr. Gaurav Kumar
Born and raised in a village in Bihar where electricity, running water, healthcare, and even newspapers were rare luxuries, Dr. Gaurav Kumar’s journey to becoming a doctor, social entrepreneur, and philanthropist is a quiet defiance of every limitation he grew up with.
He completed his MBBS from RGUHS, Bangalore in 2010. While many of his peers pursued traditional clinical careers, he joined a healthcare technology startup as a business analyst, working at the intersection of medicine and innovation.
Driven by a deep interest in mental health, he later pursued a Postgraduate Diploma in Mental Health at CMC Vellore, graduating as a gold medallist in 2019.
Alongside his academic journey, he founded Healstation Foundation—a non-profit working with underserved communities along the Indo-Nepal border. What began as a mental health initiative has grown into a comprehensive community movement, now working with local teams and employing over 200 community members, most of them women.
He is a Fellow of The Royal Society for Public Health and a Mint 40 Under 40 honoree—but in the communities he serves, he is known simply as the doctor who keeps coming back.
