A 17,000km countrywide march to eradicate begging
Saranya Chakrapani | TNN | Updated: Mar 13, 2019, 08:21 IST
Twenty-nine-year-old mechanical engineer Ashish Sharma has traversed 16,503km across the country on foot.CHENNAI: Twenty-nine-year-old mechanical engineer Ashish Sharma has traversed 16,503km across the country on foot. He started walking on August 22, 2017, from Jammu and has since covered every major highway, arterial road, metro station and mall across India with a message – “stop giving money to beggars, because you’re feeding not that child taking alms but a criminal mafia that’s draining them of their life and dignity. And also growing by the day.”
Sharma, who is currently in Chennai as part of his nationwide campaign, has been meeting with the public, students and government officials to create a brotherhood that pledges against begging. “My plan is to reconnect with these people in June with educational modules we are proposing to be implemented in their respective states,” he says.
While the countrywide march has taken him across Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra , Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Kerala, the seeds of his passion project were sown at a traffic signal in Delhi five years ago where he came across a scrawny child beggar. Sharma took him out for a meal instead and eventually befriended him, following which he came to know that the boy — then nine — had been trafficked into a racket.
Sharma got in touch with the child protection committee and rehabilitated him with the help of an NGO. He went on to rescue eight children after that in Delhi, of which six he says were trafficked. “By the time I was rescuing my ninth child, I realized that this issue needed not a temporary cure but a long-term solution. You may spend three months rescuing one child, by which time about 100 others emerge in different parts of the country,” he says. “The solution then lies in starving these rackets of resources.”
In addition to carrying out the 17,000km march covering 29 states, seven Union territories, and 4,900 villages, Sharma has programmed a mobile app called ‘Duayen’, which runs a network of schools, hospitals, police stations and government officials that could be tapped into while identifying, rescuing and rehabilitating children pushed into begging.
“A long-term objective is to open two-room schools and rehabilitation centres at every railway station in the country. Railway stations and traffic signals are prime spots for child beggars, and migration is a major contributor.”
Sharma, who is currently in Chennai as part of his nationwide campaign, has been meeting with the public, students and government officials to create a brotherhood that pledges against begging. “My plan is to reconnect with these people in June with educational modules we are proposing to be implemented in their respective states,” he says.
While the countrywide march has taken him across Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra , Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Kerala, the seeds of his passion project were sown at a traffic signal in Delhi five years ago where he came across a scrawny child beggar. Sharma took him out for a meal instead and eventually befriended him, following which he came to know that the boy — then nine — had been trafficked into a racket.
Sharma got in touch with the child protection committee and rehabilitated him with the help of an NGO. He went on to rescue eight children after that in Delhi, of which six he says were trafficked. “By the time I was rescuing my ninth child, I realized that this issue needed not a temporary cure but a long-term solution. You may spend three months rescuing one child, by which time about 100 others emerge in different parts of the country,” he says. “The solution then lies in starving these rackets of resources.”
In addition to carrying out the 17,000km march covering 29 states, seven Union territories, and 4,900 villages, Sharma has programmed a mobile app called ‘Duayen’, which runs a network of schools, hospitals, police stations and government officials that could be tapped into while identifying, rescuing and rehabilitating children pushed into begging.
“A long-term objective is to open two-room schools and rehabilitation centres at every railway station in the country. Railway stations and traffic signals are prime spots for child beggars, and migration is a major contributor.”
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