Mumbai: Hussain Mansuri, a Mumbai-based entrepreneur and philanthropist with 17 million Instagram followers, is gaining attention for his acts of kindness towards poor and struggling people across the city. Known for helping street vendors, hospital patients, and daily wage workers, Mansuri says his own years of poverty shaped his commitment to serving others.
“I have lived in poverty, and hence I find it easy to understand the problem of these people. I have struggled for food, have worn discarded clothes, and have stayed hungry,” Mansuri said. Recalling his difficult childhood, he added, “I have pulled chocolate out of the gutter and have eaten it.”
Born and raised in a Mumbai slum, Mansuri said basic necessities were often out of reach. After completing his education, he faced repeated job rejections due to limited English skills before securing work in accounting and later with an airline as ground staff. He eventually started a small garment stall under a bridge after borrowing money.
Mansuri’s social media journey reportedly began after a video showed him buying tea for an exhausted woman at a roadside stall. The clip spread widely online and brought attention to his efforts to help needy people with food, clothes, money, medical support, and daily essentials.
His work includes buying freezers for elderly vegetable sellers, arranging shade for street vendors, and helping families outside hospitals raise treatment funds. Instead of collecting donations himself, he shares bank details of needy families in his videos so people can directly support them.
“No one ever gets poor by giving,” Mansuri said, describing the principle that guides his work.
