Unmukt India Campaign to make India Free from Child Begging by Ashish Sharma

Ashish Sharma on a mission to make India
free from Child Begging 

As an engineer with good pay, Ashish Sharma was living a successful life. It all changed when he met a 9 year old beggar, wildly scratching his arm with nails, and asked for money. Like any other day, and any other beggar, Ashish offered him food instead of money. However, the food offered was enough for only one meal and they met again the next day. Ashish offered the young beggar some food again. This incident led him to think that there might be many people offering food and money to beggars but still we never see any improvement in their lifestyle. We always see them on street begging for money. This also makes us think if begging is their usual business or are they really in the situation to beg. Ashish thought about the kids begging all day on streets that when and where do they ever get a chance to go to school. It took around 3.5 months for Ashish to rescue the 9 year old kid from the red light area. After getting him an admission in a school, Ashish rescued 8 more kids from different parts of Delhi and sent them to a school with the help of other NGOs. It took almost 3 months for Ashish to rescue 9 child beggars. He realized that with this speed he could not rescue every child beggar and send them to school in his lifetime. Anger directed towards social workers, NGOs and government failing to rescue the kids was not enough, there was need for a deeper thought and meaningful actions. Determined to rescue child beggars across India, Ashish quit his job after a year and started working on his plan. 

Child Begging: Child begging is a major issue in India and different people are fighting according to their capabilities. But the total impact is not significant. One of the reasons behind this is the psychological thinking of the masses that needs to be changed. As an individual we give money or food to child beggars thinking this is the best we can do. But what if we don’t give them money/food? Will they be on streets forever? What if instead of giving them money, couple of people can sponsor them to get admission in schools? Giving money to child beggars is not a solution, because this won’t change their situation as they will continue begging. But making them self sufficient and independent by providing education will definitely upgrade them from streets to a better life. In order to change the Indian mindset towards the situation of child beggars, one need to talk in person to the masses and convince them that giving money to child beggars is wrong. Ashish made a bold decision in this direction after 8 months of careful thinking and planning. He started a 17,000 kms long journey across India to create awareness about child begging by interacting directly with the people. As of Nov 17, 2018, Ashish has already completed 12,137 kms. 

In the beginning, Ashish was uncertain if other people will accompany him or not. So he decided by himself toggle his 100% to the cause. The movement for momentum as Ashish started meeting people from different states and convinced them to eradicate child begging from India. 

Entire campaign is divided in to three parts:

1. Development of a Mobile App: An App is under development which will integrate different departments such as schools, colleges, hospitals, NGOs, rehabilitation centres, District Magistrate offices and other ministries. This will help people across the country to connect with responsible authorities whenever they see a child beggar on the street.
2. Psychological Movement: To make people aware about the need to eradicate child begging and establish a network of people working for this cause across India. Ashish is already halfway in this mission.
3. Tourism Schools and Rehabilitation Centres: Using present railway network, open tourism schools and rehabilitation centres across India. Which will allow tourists to observe real india and the network established will keep sending child beggars to schools. It is estimated that even if there are 30-40 child beggars in each village and if we can admit them to a school under the right to education act, child begging can be completely stopped. 

The Walk: Indian flag in hand, Ashish walks on right hand side of the road because of two reasons: 1) keep himself safe from being hit by someone, 2) maintaining eye contact with people coming from the opposite direction. This gives him an opportunity to greet people and talk with them. He goes to schools, markets, bus stations and railway stations. Sometimes curious people approach Ashish to know about his journey and at other times he makes them curious with a small introductory announcement. He also presents some stats related to the problems created by child begging. E.g. 68% of crime is directly proportional to begging which further leads to human trafficking. The begging chain is also connected to the mafia which train beggars such that they can use empathy to extract money from normal people. If we can eradicate begging, we can focus our energy on other issues. This is only possible with the help from people. 

Ashish Sharma interacting with public

Proud Member of AAP: Ashish is proud to be a product of Aam Aadmi Party. He started his journey as an AAP volunteer and slowly got involved with their social media team. With the inspiration from Arvind Kejriwal, who taught him how to fight when all odds are against you, Ashish is thankful to AAP. He credits his sense of determination and courage to AAP. Current movement of Ashish is not supported by AAP or any other political party. It is just the lessons and memories of his life with AAP which are with him right now. Those skills helped him shape the current movement. He is determined to make Delhi free from child begging by 2019. 

The Karma Walk: So far Ashish has walked in 29 states and Union Territories of India. First part of his journey started from J&K which ended in MP in the shape of alphabet “C”. He is now on the second part of his journey starting from Uttarakhand to Delhi, an anti-clockwise "C". This will also complete the sign of Karma (ॐ). Ashish learnt a lot through his journey across different states. He mostly walks along the roads connecting major cities in a state but also takes detour if there is a need. Uncertain about his stay the next night, he just follows his inner voice and reaches right place at the right time. People along the way also offer shelter and food. 

Day Schedule: Ashish’s day start when he leaves his place by 7:30am. This gives him enough time to be present in the nearby schools before the classes begin. By 2pm he covers around 5-6 schools in the vicinity and talk to students and teachers. In the beginning, it was difficult for him to convince principals to allow him to talk to students, but now, with his movement becoming more popular, it is much easier for him to converse with the students. After 2pm, he meets SP, DM, politicians and other officials in the area. Compared to a 50-70 kms walk per day initially, Ashish has now restricted his walk to 30-40 kms per day in order to maximize his social outreach. 

Ashish Sharma meeting government officials and public representatives

Random Meetings: Ashish randomly arrives at a school without informing them in advance. He uses the scientific theory that if you meet someone randomly, the impact increases almost 100 times. While on his journey, he is able to observe the difference in people’s thoughts. Many individuals on motorbikes come back to confirm if he is really walking 17,000kms. Ashish’s decision to walk across India help people understand his selfless service to the nation and also make them keep thinking about the problem. Some of the students even fight with their teachers and principals when the students were not allowed or were not given enough time to talk to Ashish. This signals a positive change in the Indian mindset. Now, students invite Ashish to their schools and organize small meetings. 

Finance and Challenges: Ashish has been able to manage his journey at a cost of Rs 15,000 to 20,000 per month. Without any political party or NGO help, Ashish’s entire movement is supported by two of his friends who were standing with him in solidarity when his family members were against his decision. Somehow, Ashish managed to convince his parents and now they are in his complete support. Walking alone is also beneficial in the way that people are more open to offer shelter to a person in comparison to a group. They also offer him food. Staying with locals allows him to know them better, obtain their contacts and gives him an opportunity to learn from their thought process and experiences. Two threats, stolen wallets and a kidnapping in Jabalpur (MP), couldn’t deter him from his path. 

Bank Account: As a long-term plan, Ashish will open a bank account for child beggars where people can donate instead of giving it directly to the kids. The money deposited will be utilized to admit child beggars to schools, provide study materials and build architecturally efficient school buildings wherever needed. His network of local residents, school principals, SP, DM and officers will help to find kids begging on streets and provide them materials needed for a better future. He believes that if people start donating for education and health instead of donating to beggars and temple trusts, the money can be utilized to build schools and hospitals which will be useful for human kind. 

Nation First: Ashish is also giving a message of “Nation First” by carrying the Indian flag with him. It is the nation which unites us against all the divisions created by political parties, caste and religion. He walked through 29 states, witnessed many gatherings at different scales but failed to see any event with the Indian flag. Everyone is self-centric focused on their personal or political party issues. Through his flag, he is conveying a message of “nation building”. Change will come when every individual in our country stands together for national issues rather than personal ones. It is even possible that we, as a nation, would not have to hit the roads to demand justice for Nirbhaya, if we were on the same page regarding national issues. 

Ashish Sharma visiting schools and interacting with students and teachers 

Solving Issues One by One: Indian society has a lot of problems to solve including child begging, environmental pollution, transportation management, poor infrastructure, inefficient agricultural practices, lack of education, poor health services etc.. Often we are given a sample of one issue and move on to the other without solving the previous one. Continuous movement from one issue to another keeps them unsolved for eternity. It’s mandatory that we should focus on one issue at a time until it is solved. E.g. we plant just a couple of trees on Environment day and then remain inactive for rest of the year. A long-term solution would be to fill a large tract of land or bare soil with trees such that issue is resolved for a generation. We can then move on to the next issue. 

Full-Time Artist: Ashish is also a full time artist who has composed around 141 songs and also applied for the Guinness Book record for abstract art. He has written Asia’s first novel in fiction category book which will be published next year. The entire novel falls under the fiction category and is comprised of 264 page poem. From a regular Delhi boy to a national leader, Ashish’s journey has seen many ups and downs. He is reaching to the youth of India and appealing them to avoid making complaints or excuses. It’s time to solve the issues. Change will never come if we keep complaining. So far Ashish has published around 739 articles on his journey and given many interviews to increase his reach. 14 months & 27 day (as of Nov 17, 2018) old journey of Ashish might end in Feb or March, 2019 when he will reach Delhi. He will be publishing some stats out of his journey soon. 

An Appeal: At present, he is the sole planner of this movement. He is looking for a team of 8-10 like minded people to join his movement and take it to the next level. Ashish meets around 3000-4000 people in a single day. With more members in his team, he can multiply the movement’s reach. Ashish also hopes for UN and UNICEF to join his movement. This is because both the organizations are working in similar fields but their reach is very less instead of a huge financial expenditure. Lakhs of rupees are spent on events organized by big organizations which are hardly attended by 200-300 people. Whereas, Ashish spends Rs 15,000-20,000 per month and reaches 10 times the number of people per day (which is around 1 lakh people per month). If organizations like UNICEF can help Ashish and many other people like him, they can get much better results than what they are getting now.

Watch complete video of AAP Ka Radio call with Ashish Sharma.

AAP USA chapter organizes a weekly conference call (AAP Ka Radio) every Sunday at noon 12:00PM EST. More details about the call and guest can be found at @aapchat (https://twitter.com/aapchat)

Read More: Quality Education for All

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