India, Feb. 17 -- He used to have numerous questions in his mind when he saw little poor children begging at the red light from the window of his car. As a toddler, he would seek answers to those questions from his parents.

At 12, Armaan Singh Ahluwalia decided to do something for them. He told his mother, Dr Tarvinder Kaur Ahluwalia, that he wanted to open a school for the poor children. Kaur gave in to his innocent demand, looking at her son's enthusiasm and passion.

Now, at 15 Armaan, runs Apne, a four-room school, on one of the floors of his house in Noida, for underprivileged children. "It feels like I get a fresh breeze when I'm in the company of these children," says the Class X student of the DPS RK Puram. He spends at least one...