Institutes like Karuna Setu Trust, that restore faith in humanity. For thousands of families across North Gujarat, it is far more than a hospital or an educational campus. It is a place where fear is replaced by hope, illness by healing and limitations by opportunity.
At the heart of this journey stands Dr. Vasantbhai Parikh, one of Gujarat’s pioneering ophthalmologists and an extraordinary humanitarian, and a visionary social reformer. Together with his wife, Late Smt. Ratnaprabhaben Parikh, they built a life rooted in simplicity, compassion and service with an unwavering conviction that healthcare and education were not privileges for a fortunate few but basic human rights. They established Karuna Setu Trust in 1984, a bridge of compassion dedicated to serving society with humility and dignity.
When Dr. Parikh passed away in 2007, his vision did not fade. Mrs. Amita Thakkar and Mr. Sanjay Thakkar accepted the responsibility of nurturing that dream, expanding it while preserving its soul. Under their stewardship, the Trust evolved into one of most comprehensive charitable ecosystems spanning healthcare, medical and para medical education, women empowerment, community welfare environmental conservation and rural development.
Healthcare remains the heartbeat of this mission. Vasant Prabha Multi-Speciality & Super-Speciality Hospital combines advanced medical infrastructure with affordability, ensuring that world-class healthcare is not confined to metropolitan cities. Equipped with modern intensive care units, advanced diagnostics, modular operation theatres and the district’s first robotic surgery programme, the hospital has brought highly specialised treatment closer to rural communities that once travelled hundreds of kilometres for care.
Standing alongside modern medicine is the NABH-accredited Vasant Prabha Ayurvedic Hospital, a remarkable institution that functions without a cash counter. Consultations, medicines, investigations, operations, therapies, Panchakarma treatments, admission and accommodation are all provided free of cost. In a healthcare landscape increasingly defined by rising expenses, the hospital quietly demonstrates that compassion can still be institutionalised without compromising quality.
Every day, nearly 800 patients receive treatment across the Trust’s healthcare institutions, while dozens of major surgeries and countless life-saving procedures are performed with the same commitment that inspired the organisation’s founding.
Healthcare, however, represents only one chapter of the Trust’s story.
The Trust believes that lasting social transformation begins with education. Through Dr. Vasant Parikh Ayurvedic Medical College, DNB programmes, Ratnaprabha Nursing Schools, Ratnaprabha Nursing College and an Industrial Training Institute, young people are prepared to become doctors, nurses and skilled professionals who will continue serving communities long after they graduate. Trust believes education extends far beyond classrooms. Students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds receive hostel facilities, nutritious meals, scholarships, transportation, books, laptops, educational kits and hands-on clinical exposure—ensuring that financial hardship never interrupts talent or ambition. Many first-generation learners now serve the very communities from which they came.
The organisation’s commitment extends even further into society.
Through support for higher education, women empowerment initiatives, elderly and hospice care, community nutrition programmes, direct assistance for vulnerable families and the Annakshetra food programme, Karuna Setu Trust reaches individuals at every stage of life.
Rather than creating dependency, these initiatives strengthen self-reliance, restore dignity and build resilient communities.
Equally distinctive is the Trust’s belief that human health cannot be separated from environmental health.
Its self-sustaining ecosystem includes the Vasant Vagdo Herbal Botanical Garden with hundreds of medicinal plant species, an in-house Ayurvedic pharmacy manufacturing authentic herbal medicines, rainwater harvesting systems, solar energy installations, sewage treatment and water recycling facilities, check dams, pond rejuvenation projects and a well-managed indigenous Gir Gaushala.
Here, sustainability is not a corporate slogan, It is simply a way of life.
Today, this remarkable legacy is being strengthened by a new generation of leadership that combines professional excellence with the same spirit of service
Dr. Kishti Thakkar, Managing Director of Karuna Setu Trust. represents a unique blend of medicine, management and law. A practising Critical Care Specialist, an MBA candidate at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and a law graduate, she brings together clinical expertise, strategic leadership and governance to build institutions that are compassionate, efficient and future-ready. Under her leadership, the Trust has embraced quality accreditation, technology integration, operational excellence, medical education, rural healthcare innovation and community-centred development while remaining firmly rooted in its founding values. Alongside her is Dr. Dhaval Mandlik, an accomplished orthopaedic, Spine and joint replacement and robotic surgery specialist who serves as the Medical Superintendent of Vasant Prabha Multi-Speciality Hospital. Despite opportunities in metropolitan healthcare, he chose to dedicate his career to rural Gujarat, believing that advanced medical expertise should reach patients where it is needed most rather than where it is most profitable. His leadership has strengthened clinical excellence while expanding access to specialised orthopaedic and robotic surgical care across the region.
Together, they represent not merely the next generation of administrators and clinicians, but custodians of a vision entrusted to them .
More than forty years after its beginning, Karuna Setu Trust continues to prove a timeless truth: compassion is the strongest foundation upon which any institution can be built. Through every patient healed, every student empowered and every village strengthened, the vision and legacy of Dr. Vasantbhai Parikh continues to illuminate countless lives, reminding us that the greatest legacy is not what we build for ourselves, but what we build for humanity.
