BHUBANESWAR: Ashish Sharma is a man with a mission to eradicate beggary in the country. On the trail of his ‘Beggar-free India’ campaign, called Unmukt India, he has now reached Odisha. Sharma has started his 17,000-km walkathon from Jammu some time back to accomplish the mission.
It sounds like the stuff of a story or a movie, but it’s a real-life adventure. The 29-year-old, who hails from Delhi and is a mechanical engineer by profession, has sacrificed his job in a multi-national company as well as family to campaign for ‘Beggar-free India.’ He has planned to travel 17,000 km across the country to spread the message and has already covered 11,568 km.
In an interaction with media persons, Ashish Sharma narrated his life-changing event. One evening, returning home from work, he saw a thin and lean child, with a bleeding hand, begging. Moved by the pathetic sight, he took the child home, administered him first aid, gave him some new clothes and got him enrolled in a nearby school with the help of an NGO. But he did not stop there. In fact, the incident changed his life. It was such a Buddha moment that he had decided to do something about begging.
“I got him enrolled in the school and took care of his expenses. But the thought of other children trapped in a similar existence did not let me sleep. And, I decided to launch a mission against child begging,” said Sharma, who reached Bhubaneswar Wednesday last on foot.
Finally, in 2015, Sharma decided to quit his job to pursue his dream: Eradication of child begging. As he was new to the subject, he decided to do some research first.
“After doing extensive research, I concluded that the condition was going from bad to worse. The government-run welfare schemes were not reaching those who actually deserved them, primarily because of lack of awareness,” he said.
Then he decided to embark upon the country-wide foot march to create awareness among the masses. “We cannot make people aware unless we meet them personally and a country-wide tour was perhaps the best way to meet the masses,” he said.
He set off from Jammu August 22, 2017 and covered Jammu, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab , Chandigarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Daman, Silvasa, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh.
“Journeying on foot was not at all an easy task but my goal to make India a nation free of child begging kept me going,” he said. Initially, his parents resented his plan but now they feel proud of him. His father, Suresh Sharma, who is working in the agriculture department of Semi Limited, and his mother, a homemaker, are the main supporters in his mission, he said
Sharma said he travelled around 30 to 40 km a day and met thousands of people to make them aware of the welfare schemes that could change lives. So far, he has covered around 11,568 km in 27 states & Union Territories.
When asked if his walking would help eradicate beggary, he said, “No, it won’t directly but this is just the first phase. As soon as I complete my journey, I along with my supporters will organise a huge awareness rally in New Delhi and then will start sending children to schools from village level.”
To do that, he has made a mobile app named ‘Duayen’ through which he can connect to schools, hospitals, police stations, administrative officials and other government establishments. “The application is in the testing phase. I am planning to launch it the day when I will be celebrating ‘Unmukt Diwas’. The mobile app can be of great help in identifying the lost kids and child beggars, helping them reach their homes,” he said.