Foot soldier out on a mission to end begging

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 26

Ashish Sharma (27) has been walking long distances as part of his campaign to end begging in India.

The campaign, which began on August 22, will take at least a year to complete. During this period, the Delhi resident aims to walk 17,000 km across the length and breadth of India.

Elaborating on his project during his stay in Bathinda, Ashish said, “The project, Unmukt India, is being taken up in phases by the Duayein Foundation. The foundation is run by me, in collaboration with Bhavini Mehta and Saba Hussain. We have developed an application on which we are mapping every nook and corner of India and integrating the police stations for every 5 km of area. Anyone who sees a beggar can click a picture and upload it on the application along with the location and we will send it to the police station concerned.”

“It will then be the responsibility of the police and the administration to rehabilitate the beggar. We are not asking the public to rehabilitate the beggars, we are counting on the administration and police department to do so,” Ashish said.

He added that another phase of the campaign was to make people aware of the ills of giving alms as it gives rise to begging as a profession.

“If we can’t keep the people away from begging, we can at least make the public aware that we must not give alms. If they stop getting alms, they will stop begging,” he said.

Ashish began his walk from Udhampur in Jammu and has already walked 1,238 km, covering Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.

He has already met more than one lakh students and has covered 73 schools and colleges.

He is following the concept of Sanatan Dharma under which one can seek ‘bhiksha’ of food and overnight stay at someone’s house.

“Since I am funding this walk, I have not been staying at hotels as that would cost me a lot. Instead, I have been following the concept of Bhiksha, as it is in Sanatan Dharma. Till now, I have been fortunate to get both during my trip,” he said.

The walk or the journey to start the foundation was not an easy one for Ashish.

After completing his engineering, he began working as a mechanical engineer in Delhi.

A couple of years ago, he came across a nine-year-old boy who was drugged to beg on the roads of Delhi.

He helped not only him but eight more like him in their rehabilitation.

“After that incident, I gave up my job to pursue this cause. Earlier, my parents were not supportive of my decision as they wanted me to be professionally settled in life but now they have also understood the cause and support me,” he said.