Thirty years on, Akshaya Kshetram is home to 100 persons with intellectual disabilities

Thirty years since it was set up, Akshaya Kshetram, a home for persons with intellectual disabilities, continues to serve the community near Tirumala.

Founded on October 2, 1996 by M. Ramaswamy and M. Varalakshmi, both octogenarians, it started as a daycare centre for children with intellectual disabilities who had been abandoned by their parents. Through the 1980s and 1990s, a growing number of parents were leaving such children at Tirumala.