FOUNDER

ABOUT FOUNDER

Dr.K. Mohanasundaram, founder of PSDF was born in 1958 in an agricultural village called Puthirankottai, in Changalpattu District, Tamil Nadu. His father was a farmer, social worker and studied only up to primary school.

Founder Mohanasundaram completed his primary education in his native village and later moved to Changapattu, Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidhiyalaya School, studied 6and 7th Std. Discontinue in 7th Std and continued his studies at nearby village government school in Chunampet, up to 8 standard. He finally finished high school studies in the V.O.C Government High School in Pondicherry. He completed his Pre-University Course at Tagore Arts College, Pondicherry and completed his under graduate in Commerce at Pereyar Arts College, Cuddalore.

While studying at Preyerar College he witnessed segregation and several clashes between the Dalit and non-Dalit students. Dalit students couldn't participate in college union elections, sports activities and cultural programs in equal with others. He desires for changes and involved in social work and joins in the NSS and NCC.

His father was a social worker and he involved in community activities and he was elected as a President of the village. He spent most of his life for poor people to get basic amenities in his village. His achievements and involvement with the society are more. When he was the president of his village, He lays new roads, water tanks, digging wells for drinking water, upgrade the primary school to middle school, build school buildings and arrange the transport facilities to our village. Inspired by the work of his father, Mohanasundaram decided to lay his path in social work and take up his father's cause.

He started his emplacement in Telephone department Pondicherry, in the meantime he completed the Master’s degree in Commerce in Annamalai University, Chidambaram, and Tamil Nadu in the year1988. While in the service he joints with his friends and started the Dr. Ambedkar Literary Association in 1989. To motivate Dalit , Minority and Backword children ‘s education and involve them in cultural activities. In the meantime, he completed another Master’s degree in Political Science in the same university through correspondence in 1993.

That same year, he started Pondicherry Slum Dwellers Federation, an active movement working for Slum Peoples to get basic needs such as water, sanitation, shelter and education for poor and slum communities. While visiting different villages he realized that, there women and children are also venerable, Therefore, his work eventually grew to include women, children and Dalits.

In the year 1999 on December 27th he registered the Pondicherry Slum Dwellers Federation as a Civil Society Organization under the Society Registration Act. In the year 2003 the name of the organization was changed, while keeping the acronym, in order to reflect the scope of the organization's work. It became the People’s Social Development Foundation.

Inspired by the words of Dr. Ambedkar, Mohanasundaram, he spending 10 percent of the salary he earns as an employee at an Insurance Company to fund the activities of the PSDF to develop suppressed class of women and children