Indian playback singer Palak Muchhal has been officially recognised by the Guinness World Records and Limca Book of Records for her long-standing humanitarian work in funding over 3,800 heart surgeries for children with congenital heart diseases. According to India Today, the recognition honours her decades-long effort to use musical performances to raise funds for critical paediatric cardiac surgeries.
Her charitable initiative, the Palak Muchhal Heart Foundation, has supported thousands of underprivileged children across India.
Palak Muchhal was born in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and began her singing journey at the age of four. Her inclination toward philanthropy began early.
During the Kargil War in 1999, when she was just seven years old, Palak sang at shops and local events in Indore to raise money for the families of fallen Indian soldiers and to aid victims of the 1999 Odisha cyclone.
Her defining moment came when she witnessed poor children cleaning train compartments with their own clothes, an image that motivated her to use her talent to help others. Soon after, a teacher from Nidhi Bal Vinay Mandir, Indore, requested her help to raise funds for Lokesh, a student suffering from a congenital heart defect.
In March 2000, Palak staged her first charity concert and raised ₹51,000 (US $1,600). The story drew national attention, leading cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty to operate on Lokesh free of cost. Public interest grew, and her parents advertised for donations to support other children with similar heart conditions and soon compiling a list of 33 children in need of surgery.
Following her early success, Palak Muchhal began hosting a series of charity concerts across India under the banner “Dil Se Dil Tak” (“From Heart to Heart”) in Hindi and “Save Little Hearts” in English.
To help lower surgery costs, T. Choithram Hospital in Indore reduced its fee per operation from ₹80,000 to ₹40,000, and surgeon Dr. Dhiraj Gandhi volunteered to waive his professional fees for cases referred by the Muchhal Foundation.
Over time, the scale of her efforts expanded nationally and internationally.
Her formal charity, the Palak Muchhal Heart Foundation, was officially established in the early 2000s.
Hospitals like Bhandari Hospital, Indore, even provided an overdraft facility of ₹1 million to ensure that no child’s treatment was delayed due to lack of funds.
The surgeries supported by Muchhal’s foundation primarily address congenital heart defects, structural abnormalities in the heart present at birth. These conditions can severely limit oxygen flow and cause long-term cardiac complications or early death if untreated.
In recognition of her long-term contribution, Palak Muchhal has been featured in the Guinness World Records and the Limca Book of Records for “funding the highest number of heart surgeries by an individual artist.”
Today, the total number exceeds 3,800 successful surgeries, spanning children from multiple states and occasionally neighbouring countries.
(Rh/TL/MSM)
