Amod Kumar
Dr. Kumar completed his MBBS from S.N,Medical College Agra in 1987 and later joined for an MD in Community Medicine from the same institution. After spending some period in the government sector; Dr. Amod Joined the Community Health Department of St. Stephen’s Hospital in 1993. At the time of joining the department it was a small slum based unit and an outreach clinic. Under his leadership the department grew to become a model centre of providing Comprehensive Community Health and development services to a population of over 100,000. Several innovative programmes started which are being replicated in the broader scenario.
He gained education from Nuffield’s Institute, Leeds, UK and did MPhil jointly run by CMC Vellore, BITS Pilani and Yale University USA.
Dr. Kumar was instrumental in developing the Award-winning Mission Convergence program of the government of NCT Delhi, which has revolutionized the governance and implementation of welfare schemes. He steered a Delhi wide Survey of 5.5 million people living in vulnerable areas and over 55000 homeless.
He was also instrumental in developing a system for delivering services for the homeless in Delhi and is currently heading the Mother NGO project for Homeless. Under his leadership number of shelters was increased from 17 to over 100 with much enhanced services. His team devised the Jan Ahaar scheme under which government has opened 47 NGO run low cost high nutrition food stalls for labourerss and the homeless. His department runs a 24 hours helpline and rescue services for the ailing homeless and destitute. Under the leadership of Dr. Amod the community health has integrated education, economic empowerment programs, urban horticulture and community organization.
The St. Stephen’s Hospital’s Department of Community Health is India’s only “private hospital run” DNB (SPM) teaching centre in the country. Dr. Kumar has a special interest in Community Paediatrics. He has been instrumental in improving the quality of several orphanages through health audits and has conducted training in various parts of the country. He is currently one of the trustees of the Child Health Foundation.
Born into a traditional family, Dr. Amod learnt Sanatan and Arya Samaj streams from his mother and father respectively. He had a deep interest in theology and studied a wide range of literature written by lucid authors such as Swami Vivekananda, Swami Dayanada, Mr. Rajgopalachari etc. He attended various groups such as the right-wing religious and left-wing atheists. His encounter with Christian teachings began during his work.
From initial criticism to admiration Dr. Amod travelled a path of understanding Jesus Christ and His work. It was around 2002 he started feeling the spiritual blessing of Christ and realised that Christ was not just a social reformer but actually a living God. After passing through a great deal of experience and deliberations, Dr. Amod decided to publicly declare Christ as his personal saviour and God, on 10th June 2012 through ceremonial baptism. Dr. Amod is joyfully experiencing and growing in Christian discipleship.
