The genesis of Purvanchal Seva Sansthan lies in the heartfelt desire of its founder secretary Dr Sudama Prasad Pandey to facilitate the accessibility of basic health facilities and rural sanitation for pro-poor and deprived communities. During 1970s, he started to serve deprived villagers in the Deoria district.

But the magnitude of the problem was such that voluntary work of individuals required the association of like-minded people and support from government and international agencies. As a result, PSS was registered as a society on 24 March 1972. It was registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act on 11 February 1985.

The thrust of PSS is to empower vulnerable and rural sections of the rural society through initiatives in education, health — especially on treatment of leprosy (at the time of formation), awareness generation on HIV/AIDS, women and child healthcare — livelihood, natural resource management and rural sanitation.

PSS strongly believes in the concept of holistic development and strives to address issues like empowering local self-governance, non-formal education, rural sanitation, alternative income generation activities and promotion of an eco-friendly environment.

These dynamic founders and change agents organised various awareness generation and educational activities on basic health facilities and rural sanitation at the grassroots level amongst the most disadvantaged section of the community in eastern Uttar Pradesh, which were lagging in the race of development.