About the Founder - Dr. Rikhi Thakral
Dr. Rikhipal Singh Thakral was born in 1963, to Mr. Kartar Singh Thakral and Madam Narinder Kaur Thakral and spent his childhood days in Thailand. He spent most of his time in the local Sikh temple and religious teachings became deeply imbued in him. He also read widely, and was particularly inspired by three great personalities:
The King of Siam for his sincere concern for his people
Mother Theresa, for touching so many lives
His parents
He joined Thakral Group (the Family business) at the age of 16. The Group started their business in Thailand in 1905 and presently has its headquarters in Singapore. It is well diversified into trading, distribution and manufacturing, real estate, property development and hotels and its product portfolio covers watches, consumer electronics, in over 30 countries. The Group employs more than 9,000 People.
Dr. Rikhi is an Executive Director of the Thakral Group and oversees the property portfolio of the Group in Singapore and Australia as well as the timepieces business in Indo-China.
Being from a strong Sikh family and living in a Buddhist society, Dr. Rikhi naturally cultivated the habit of setting aside a percentage of his income to do God’s work.
This philanthropic tendency was deeply strengthened during his business trips in some of the Asian countries where he witnessed many sorry sights. He was distraught to discover that many disabled people had been mutilated on purpose in order to gain sympathy. It was actually an orchestrated practice in which children were bought by gangs, who forced boys to beg for money and sold girls into prostitution.
Dr. Rikhi decided he needed to make a difference, however small, for those less fortunate than himself. He began volunteering and helping in all sorts of charitable projects and organizations, and made contributions to individuals from all walks of life. Gradually he realized that focused and direct efforts achieve the best humanitarian results.
Pondering on how to go forward, Dr. Rikhi approached his father Mr Kartar Singh Thakral, who guided him that a company and ultimately a Trust or Foundation will be the best structure. Mr Kartar Singh Thakral suggested the name “In SEWA”, which means God’s work. Thus, In SEWA Limited was formed and the patriarchs are Mr Kartar Singh Thakral and Dr. Rikhi.
In SEWA helped to formalise the vision, create discipline and structure to sustain the focus and direct efforts for years to come. In-Sewa decided to focus the resources on children. Outside of their homes, the most important environment of the children is the school. Therefore, in addition to helping disadvantaged children meet their basic needs, such as food and drinking water, In SEWA also resolved to help meet their educational needs, including school buildings, proper seats and tables for classrooms, toilets for sanitation, and sports equipment for children’s enjoyment and physical health.
“FILIAL PIETY TO PARENTS & GOD’S GRACE IS THE GREATEST GIFT OF ALL”
Personal Philosophy
My wish is to spend maximum time with my Master
My wish is to spend maximum time with my Father
My wish is till my last breath whenever that may be tomorrow or 91 years of age to remain in the Sikh faith
My wish is for my 5 children, their partners, their children to stay in the Sikh faith and have a secure future and to be proud to be members of the Thakral Family
My wish is to daily remember my grandfather who was an orphan at the age of 9 years old and waited on tables and what we are today is not by chance, by effort, not hard work but simply by the Grace of God and his magnanimity bestowed upon us
My wish is for my direct family members to daily recite the Sikh scriptures
My wish is for those associated with me never to deal with liquor, tobacco, meat, human trafficking and the use of child labour
My wish is to have a debt free life, and not even a car loan
My wish is to easily forgive yet not forget without being vindictive
My wish is to use 99% of all funds in In Sewa on actual work
All it takes for evil to succeed is for a good man to do nothing
I would rather die standing than live on my knees
Founders Message
The person who is reading this ……………
During my initial visit to Saigon in 1986, I was pleased to see that the poverty level was quite low. My first impression was that there are no beggars on the street and this clearly was a benchmark to an earlier trip in one of the third world countries where I came across at least 2 dozen people within the terminal building, of which half did not have limbs. Much to my distraught, I later found out that a large number had been amputated on purpose in order to gain sympathy. And this was actually done on an orchestrated / collective basis where children were bought by gangs who made money from the males and the females were sold into prostitution.
Having lived in Singapore and Thailand, I had never witnessed this. But the visit to Saigon was not the end as my next stop was Cambodia, where again I witnessed what I had seen in the third world country, perhaps to a lesser degree. And this disturbed me…
By early 1990, I visited an orphanage. What I saw devastated me as one out of five children was dying below the age of 5 years for lack of simple amenities, starting from God’s gift to us – WATER, and subsequently water borne diseases like Cholera, Diphtheria, Typhoid, Dysentery, Jaundice and many more.
Finally, I visited Vientiane Laos, where there seemed to be a total standstill in terms of economy. However, due to the high influence of the Buddhist way of life, there were many helping hands, ensuring that there was adequate food and the bare necessities of life. Nevertheless, due to lack of funds, there was an unusually high rate of blindness, people dying of simple things like flu, untreated chicken pox, cholera, and in the villages there existed polio. Another alarming fact was the absence of any proper education system.
With my parents’ blessings, I then decided to start as what would be the seed of ‘In Sewa Ltd’.
We started off with basic donations such as providing buckets, so that the monks could bring water from the well to the schools. This was the beginning to what is today….
Now and tomorrow and in the future, the vision of ‘In SEWA’, is to operate in absolute transparency, discipline, truth and in the name of God to do whatever little we can to repay the immense gifts ‘HE‘ has bestowed upon us.
— Dr. Rikhi Thakral
“ALL IT TAKES FOR EVIL TO SUCCEED IS FOR GOOD MEN TO DO NOTHING.”
Dr. Rikhi Thakral