From birth, Swapnil Tewari was dyslexic and synesthetic—a medical condition in which one of the five senses concurrently stimulates another—so his life has been a wild ride. Due to his illness, he had trouble learning in school, lost his father in a vehicle accident, and at the age of twelve, was on the edge of suicide. But he decided to give life another go. He gained strength from the battle and learned from his setbacks.
In addition to bringing joy into his own life, Swapnil also attempted to convey happiness to those around him. The 31-year-old is now among India’s youngest social reformers with special needs. Following his resignation from the banking industry, he founded the Livemad movement, which uses social ideas and entrepreneurship to bring hope and support to communities facing hardship. Given Swapnil’s inclination to have a positive impact on society, he started by uplifting the underprivileged and disenfranchised. He has done everything, from saving struggling families to improving the livelihoods of tribal craftspeople and developing instruments to ensure the protection of women.
“At that time, I was thinking of ways to help Indian craftspeople maintain their art traditions. Therefore, I selected the phone number of a family of artisans in the Bihar town of Madhubani by looking up a few contacts on my roster. According to Swapnil, a small child who had just lost her father to illness had answered the phone. “The Pradhan of the village started taking away my mummy at night and dropping her back in the morning after my father passed away,” the girl stated. My mother has just been sobbing since then.
Swapnil was troubled by this chat and could not come to terms with the anguish the artisan’s family was going through. After a few days, he decided to take action and set out to find and save the family. Carrying a motorbike and Rs 60,000 in his pocket, he rode to Madhubani. He endured several difficult circumstances, including being pursued by the village bullies, before figuring out who the artisan’s family was and moving them to Delhi.
Swapnil was committed to changing the community for the better. This prompted him to travel to Satpura’s woods, one of central India’s most violent regions. Despite his quest to break the cycle of poverty and violence, he was kidnapped and subjected to days of torture on the pretext that he was a spy.
Every day, they would beat me and starve me. They eventually liberated me after realising my actual motives. I started promoting awareness about certain fundamental life skills like health, cleanliness, and education because most of the people in the bush were shut off from the outside world,” Swapnil tells us. In 2015, upon returning to Delhi from Satpura, Swapnil launched the Livemad movement, encompassing several social initiatives. His initial endeavour concerned women’s protection. He created a whistle Shakti for women’s protection as part of the “Pink Whistle Project,” which he founded. The whistle could be worn as a bracelet and, by pushing a button, could transform into a two-inch weapon in an emergency.
Despite his difficulties, Swapnil emerged from the victim role to provide guidance and support to thousands of others by leading workshops on positive thinking, helping them overcome feelings of sadness and suicidal thoughts. Furthermore, he is collaborating on AIDS prevention with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Despite all the difficulties, Swapnil continued his love for helping people, and Forbes honoured his work by listing him as one of the “1000 World Leaders for Hope.” In 2018, he was also selected to serve as the UNESCO ambassador for inclusive education. In 2018, the governments of Odisha and Uttar Pradesh also awarded him the State Peace Award. Documentary and biographical features are now documenting his life story.