'SSMRK Foundation' strives to improve financial literacy of girl child

Primarily focused on promoting girl's education and sports upliftment in the society, Shakuntala Singh Memorial Rita Kumar Foundation celebrated its 12th anniversary on March 19 at Excelsior American School Auditorium, Gurgaon.

The foundation presented a scholarship of more than Rs. five lakh to 100 under privileged girls and Rs. 1.2 lakh to sports students. Distinguished individuals with distinction in social services were also honored with Shakuntala Singh Foundation Award 2016 for their outstanding efforts and contribution to the society.

BJP spokesperson Anila Singh, Arjun Award Winner, Former Captain of Indian Women Hockey Team, Mamta Kharab and Movie and TV Actor, Zarina Wahab were among a few to be present at the event.

Hersh Kumar Founder, Shakuntala Singh Memorial Rita Kumar Foundation said, "We have adopted several schools for education of young girls in India because we believe, by educating girls we can educate the whole society. We are committed to help at least over 100,000 rural girls who have very limited resources. At present, Foundation is spending around Rs. one crore annually for education of girls."

He also said that the fund is a self sustainable charity foundation, where funds are growing with time rather than depleting. We had started with investment of 100crores in charity fund 12 years back which is now a Rs. 300 crore fund.

"The fund is growing at the rate of 25 percent per annum, we contribute to almost 50 nonprofit organizations, assets of Excelsior school is also a part of the foundation, wherein 100 percent of the revenue is used for charity," added Hersh.

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, (MOS) Lt. Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Minister of Planning and MoS, Ministry of Defence, Rao Inderjit Singh were among the guest of honor for the event.