Christmas Day 2024 should have been filled with joy for Anjali*. But instead of celebrating her daughter’s first Christmas, she sat in a cramped hospital ward in Delhi, cradling a baby far too small for her arms. Born prematurely at just 1240 grams, her daughter had been whisked away to the ICU the moment she arrived in the world as her delicate body was unable to cope on its own. She did not even have a name yet in the hospital records. She was just b/o Anjali (baby of Anjali).
By the time she was two months old, the little one had already been on and off a ventilator. Anjali could do nothing but watch as her baby struggled, her tiny chest rising and falling with effort. Then came the diagnosis: a heart defect. A small duct in the heart that was supposed to close after birth had remained open due to her early arrival. It sounded simple, but it was anything but. The condition was serious, and it was slowly draining the baby’s strength.
Anjali’s world tilted. She and her husband were already living on the edge, barely managing daily expenses. The word “surgery” felt like a mountain they could not climb. The cost was staggering, the wait at public hospitals unbearably long, and the alternative – private hospitals – was a financial impossibility. They felt trapped.
Anjali’s daughter is just one among roughly 2,00,000 babies born each year in India with congenital heart disease (CHD). That’s around eight in every thousand newborns – closely aligned with global rates, but in India’s case, the numbers balloon into a national crisis. For context, the United States sees about 40,000 CHD births annually; the UK around 6,500. But India carries the heaviest load. Out of these two lakh babies, around 50,000, or one in four, need urgent surgical intervention in their first year just to survive. And if that critical window is missed, the chances of survival plummet.
But just when they were running out of hope, someone told them about the Child Heart Foundation (CHF), a not-for-profit working quietly behind the scenes to support families like theirs. By February 2025, CHF had stepped in and arranged for a device closure – a tiny 3×4 mm implant placed in the baby’s heart to seal the defect. The very next day, Anjali returned to her local hospital, this time with a baby whose heartbeat was strong and steady. Her eyes welled with quiet relief. Her child had been given a second chance.
Congenital Heart Disease (CHD): India’s Hidden Burden
Anjali’s daughter is just one among roughly 2,00,000 babies born each year in India with congenital heart disease (CHD). That’s around eight in every thousand newborns – closely aligned with global rates, but in India’s case, the numbers balloon into a national crisis. For context, the United States sees about 40,000 CHD births annually; the UK around 6,500. But India carries the heaviest load.
Out of these two lakh babies, around 50,000, or one in four, need urgent surgical intervention in their first year just to survive. And if that critical window is missed, the chances of survival plummet.
Why does CHD happen? The reasons vary. Sometimes it is genetic. Other times, it could stem from infections like rubella during pregnancy, unmanaged diabetes, or poor maternal nutrition. In rural India, where antenatal care is inconsistent and patchy, many such defects go undiagnosed until birth or even later.
For those 50,000 babies each year, the clock starts ticking from the moment they are born. And all too often, time runs out.
When Poverty Meets a Broken System
Imagine, for a moment, being in Anjali’s shoes. You live in a small town. Your family survives day to day, with barely enough to cover groceries and rent. Then your baby is diagnosed with a heart defect, and the cost of surgery ranges from ₹1.5 to ₹5 Lakhs. You have never even seen that kind of money in one place.
There is the option of going to a government hospital like AIIMS, where treatment is offered at minimal or no cost. But the reality is brutal. The queues are endless, sometimes stretching for years. Many children do not make it through the wait.
This is the space that the Child Heart Foundation stepped into. Founded in 2013, CHF emerged not from a boardroom or think tank, but from the raw urgency of lived experience. It was the vision of Dr Vikas Kohli, a paediatric cardiologist who had spent decades watching poor families go from doctor to doctor, trying desperately to save their children. On January 7, 2013, under the Trust Act of 1882, the Child Heart Foundation was born with a bold and simple promise: No Child Left Behind.
Private hospitals, meanwhile, are better equipped, but they are out of reach for most families. Even getting a proper diagnosis is a challenge in rural India, where paediatricians are few, diagnostic tools are outdated, and medical knowledge about CHD is limited. Families are often bounced from one clinic to another, spending money they cannot afford, with no answers or resolution.
It becomes a cruel cycle of delayed care, drained savings, and, in far too many cases, the worst kind of goodbye.
The Birth of a Lifeline
This is the space that the Child Heart Foundation stepped into. Founded in 2013, CHF emerged not from a boardroom or think tank, but from the raw urgency of lived experience. It was the vision of Dr Vikas Kohli, a paediatric cardiologist who had spent decades watching poor families go from doctor to doctor, trying desperately to save their children.
Dr. Kohli still feels the moment it hit him: “I would meet parents who had sold everything just to get through one more test. But it still wasn’t enough. I kept thinking, ‘Why should a child’s life depend on whether their parents can pay?’”
He wasn’t alone. Seven other parents who had themselves gone through the ordeal of managing a child’s heart condition joined hands with him. And so, on January 7, 2013, under the Trust Act of 1882, the Child Heart Foundation was born with a bold and simple promise: No Child Left Behind.
A Vision Forged in Heartbeats
Since its inception, CHF has focused on building a safety net around children with CHD -woven from early detection, accessible treatment, and sustained support. Over the years, this commitment has taken the shape of several targeted programmes that tackle CHD from multiple angles.
CHF’s work begins even before birth. Through the JEEVANSH® programme, expecting mothers receive free fetal echocardiography to detect CHD in the womb. In Delhi, Siliguri, and Punjab, over 8,000 women have been screened so far.
PraDAAN®: The Early Light
Early detection can transform the outcome for a child with CHD. CHF’s PraDAAN® programme offers free or highly subsidised echocardiography or heart scans for children from underserved families. Operating in Delhi, Siliguri, and Punjab, the initiative has already screened over 20,000 children. Many of them were first identified at government hospitals or during CHF outreach camps.
But it does not stop at screenings. CHF has donated paediatric echo machines to district-level hospitals and trained local doctors to use them, shrinking the gap between suspicion and certainty. These ripple effects mean trouble can be caught before it turns fatal.
HRIDAAN®: When Surgery is the Only Hope
CHF’s HRIDAAN® programme provides full financial support for life-saving procedures for children who need immediate intervention. So far, 586 children have received critical surgeries like PDA (Patent Ductus Arteriosus) stents and balloon valvuloplasties to complex arterial switch operations.
One story stands out: a newborn with a condition called Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA), where the heart’s main arteries are reversed. Weighing just 2 kg, she needed surgery within days of birth. CHF stepped in, covering every cost. Today, that baby is alive and thriving, a living testament to what timely help can do.
What sets CHF apart from many NGOs is its commitment to full funding. “We don’t just pitch in and disappear,” says a CHF team member. “If we take on a case, we take responsibility.”
JEEVANSH®: Before the First Cry
CHF’s work begins even before birth. Through the JEEVANSH® programme, expecting mothers receive free fetal echocardiography to detect CHD in the womb. In Delhi, Siliguri, and Punjab, over 8,000 women have been screened so far.
In one case, a mother learned during pregnancy that her baby had TGA, a condition requiring surgery within hours of delivery. CHF planned every detail of the care. Today, that four-year-old is healthy and energetic, unaware of how close she came to not making it.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can play a transformative role in expanding CHF’s reach and impact. Companies can support free screenings, invest in telemedicine and AI-powered diagnostics to enhance early detection, fund critical surgeries and medications, and help organise awareness drives that promote early detection and timely intervention. In doing so, they do not just meet their CSR goals but help rewrite the futures of children born with congenital heart disease.
SUGYAAN and Grassroots Outreach: Knowledge is Power
Recognising that prevention and awareness are just as vital as treatment, CHF runs SUGYAAN, a programme to train doctors in reading paediatric heart scans. So far, 75 
doctors have been trained.
Child Heart Foundation also engages with village community health workers like ASHA and Anganwadi workers across rural areas, equipping them to identify early signs of CHD and refer families to screening centres.
Through combined outreach and education campaigns like JEEVANSH outreach, CHF has touched over one lakh lives, spreading knowledge about heart health, symptom smarts, and quick moves that can save a child.
When CSR Becomes a Lifeline
While the Child Heart Foundation operates with agility and purpose, its ability to scale life-saving work has been powered by meaningful corporate partnerships and CSR support. A striking example is the collaboration with Balakram MCD Hospital in Delhi, where CSR funding helped establish a cutting-edge paediatric cardiac centre in 2024. Thousands of children have been screened, and hundreds have received life-saving treatment. This Centre stands as a model of what is possible, but scaling such efforts requires more: more doctors, more donors, more volunteers, and more companies with deep pockets and big hearts.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can play a transformative role in expanding CHF’s reach and impact. Companies can support free screenings, invest in telemedicine and AI-powered diagnostics to enhance early detection, fund critical surgeries and medications, and help organise awareness drives that promote early detection and timely intervention. In doing so, they do not just meet their CSR goals but help rewrite the futures of children born with congenital heart disease.
Dr Kohli has a clear and passionate call to action: “If your company is looking for a cause that creates a tangible, measurable impact, CHF is the one for you. Your CSR funding can decide whether a child gets to live.”
Child Heart Foundation’s future vision is bold. It plans to expand screening services across States, establish a centralised treatment hub, and focus on complex cases, especially those turned away by other hospitals for being too risky or too small (many facilities still would not operate on babies under 5 kg). Discussions are underway with State Governments in Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh to create a broader safety net.
Echoes of Gratitude
Families who have received help from CHF carry the Foundation in their hearts.
“We had nothing left,” says Priya from Punjab, whose son underwent PDA stenting at just three weeks old. “But CHF paid for everything. Now he is a whirlwind who cannot stay still. He is our bundle of joy.”
Rajesh, another parent, shares: “Our daughter’s surgery felt like a dream we couldn’t touch. CHF made it real.”
Their stories speak of lives transformed, not just medically, but emotionally as well.
The Next Chapter
Child Heart Foundation’s future vision is bold. It plans to expand screening services across States, establish a centralised treatment hub, and focus on complex cases, especially those turned away by other hospitals for being too risky or too small (many facilities still would not operate on babies under 5 kg). Discussions are underway with State Governments in Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh to create a broader safety net. And while the Foundation’s operations grow, its heart remains in the same place: with the children.
“Seeing kids play, smile and grow is my fuel,” says Dr Kohli.
Each heartbeat renews our resolve, echoing the reason we began and the passion that keeps us going.