Since the early eighties the Belgian author, radio journalist, university lecturer and management consultant Francis Laleman has been travelling on and off throughout the Indian subcontinent. In 1992, performing an unprecedented long distance walk in the footsteps of the historical Buddha as a major research project, for the first time he was pressed to come to grips with the abominable life standards of Bihar’s Dalit and Scheduled Castes Communities. Not wanting to weasel out from the responsibilities of a modern traveller/researcher in a land fostered by blatant inequalities and hardships, he changed roles from an objective observer to an emotionally involved participant – and choosing to follow the inherent precepts of a form of socially engaged Buddhism, energetically got involved in a series of social projects in Gaya district.

At Bodhgaya, the site of the Buddha’s Enlightenment, the growing international atmosphere had led to the emergence of a series of programs aiming at the emancipation of the so-called untouchables, mostly veered into motion by the initiative of one of the many non-Indian (Tibetan, Japanese, Sri Lankan, Thai, ...) monastic communities dotting the area .

By chance, Francis met with Kailash Prasad, himself a Dalit, at that time engaged as a social worker with the Root Institute (affiliated with the Tibetan spiritual teacher Zopa Rinpoche) and Francis and Kailash have been close friends ever since.

Aiming at dislodging the emancipation of the untouchables from its purely Buddhist and tourist-driven prerequisite, Kailash has since set up an independent organisation called Jeevan Deep (The Light of Life), mainly focusing on educational and basic health programs in some 30 village communities surrounding Bodhgaya’s main temple. For Kailash, running this network is an immensely challenging affair. Not only is he constantly on the lookout for teachers willing to “spoil” their career by working in these most basic of circumstances - most in particular the gathering of the necessary funds is what keeps getting him on edge.

In the meantime, however, Francis Laleman has continued to come back to Bodhgaya, bringing groups of clients, students and friends in his trail. Considering guiding and touring in this heartland of historical Buddhism unethical, unless flavoured by a fair amount of efforts aiming at updating the social awareness of the participants – he makes it a point never to leave Bodhgaya before confronting the group with the fate of the untouchables for at least a few days. In the early months of 2003, this provided a most lucky outcome for Kailash and his Jeevan Deep colleagues, when Jerry Meuris and a group of Francis’s co-travellers, having got all goose-pimply by Kailash’s charisma and the warm welcome they were given by the Bodhgaya untouchables, decided to set up a long-term fund raising program (the Anand Society) to help pay for the Jeevan Deep school program.