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| Edited By: Pooja Salvi |Source: DNA |Updated: Jul 15, 2018, 06:00 AM IST
It was in August 2017 that Ashish Sharma began his expedition Unmukt India. The 27-year-old Delhi resident quit his job as a mechanical engineer in a thriving multi-national company for an on-foot journey across the country. The reason: he wanted to end child begging and ensure that the children are given a better quality of life.
As Sharma speaks to us walking through Begusarai in Bihar, he recalls what prompted him to start a fight against the system: "Outside my office in Delhi, a boy was always stationed with a group of five-six other kids, all of them roughly 10 years old. He is always there begging, and going by the way he spoke and behaved, his dependence on drugs was evident," begins Sharma. "He was also bleeding through his nails. An overwhelming feeling took over me and it was in that moment that I knew I must do something to save him, and others like him," he resolved.
When Sharma first told his parents he was going to have to quit his job for the endeavour, they weren't happy. "They wanted me to have a successful career and excel professionally – they didn't expect me to quit my job for a social cause," he recalls. But a little persuasion is all it took to change their minds.
The campaign is meant to cover all 29 states, seven Union Territories and across 4,900 villages. Since August last year, Sharma has covered a distance of over 8,000km across 54 districts and states namely Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
Sharma elaborates on the urchins' business model, which are more often than never begging rackets managed by local gangsters and/ or the mafia. Inside these rackets, the children are subjected to violence, abuse, and exploitation. He recounts from instances through his ongoing walk. "I have been walking through Bihar for the last couple of days, but have come across at least four reported instances of infants being kidnapped from hospitals.
These babies are used as tools to beg on the streets. Once they are about five years old, they are made to sell flowers at traffic signals, between ages six-nine, they are made ragpickers, children aged nine-12 years, are made drug peddlers, and by the time they reach 17 years of age, they are trained to handle small groups of novices – it is a vicious circle," he explains.
As Sharma walked from one taluka to the other, and one state to the next, he made sure he was leaving behind an impact. For this, he met with the chief ministers of every state he visited and offered proposals to tackle child begging. At the same time, he has made the initiative more open. "Through an application developed by us, we are mapping every nook and corner of India and integrating police stations every five kilometres. Once you have the app, you can upload a picture of a child beggar you see along with the location. This will be directly sent to the nearest police station concerned. Following which, it will be the responsibility of the police and the administration to rehabilitate the child," he explains.
When Sharma started walking for Unmukt India, in September 2017, Hong Kong-based marketing executive Srishti Bakshi embarked on a foot-journey all by herself from Kashmir to Kanyakumari to make roads safer for women and spread awareness about the great Indian gender divide by empowering women with digital and financial literacy. Throughout the 3,800-km journey of CrossBow Miles, where Bakshi covered the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Punjab, she also held workshops – a total of 110 – on safety, hygiene, sanitation, leadership and business.
Her expedition came to an end in May. And since, Bakshi is working on making a documentary of her journey. "A documentary will ensure that the struggle of millions of women in India will reach billions of people worldwide," she hopes. At the same time, Bakshi is working on a research paper on the solutions to the dire state of women safety in association with the government of Jammu and Kashmir.
Kiran Verma is another walker who, through his initiative Simply Blood, aimed to spread the message of blood donation. The 6000-km long journey covered India from Lal Chowk in Srinagar to Trivandrum, which he completed in a combination of walking and hitch-hiking. "I met with as many people as possible – schools, colleges, railway stations, malls, places of worships – and spoke to them about the importance of donating blood," Verma says.
"According to NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation), every day, more than 12,000 Indians die due to lack of blood. My aim is to encourage at least 10 people every kilometre to pledge to donate blood once in their life – it will help save hundreds of lives," he says.
Walking is perhaps the oldest form of protest known to Indians – a weapon Mahatma Gandhi incorporated in his fight for Indian Independence and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa. Dandi Satyagraha, also known as Dandi March, was a nonviolent act of civil disobedience led by Gandhi to fight against the taxation of salt production in Dandi, Gujarat. Wikipedia defines Satyagraha as "a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance." In their own way, Ashish Sharma, Srishti Bakshi, and Kiran Verma are protesting the current state of affairs by peacefully revolting it.
"Our maharishis have gained immense knowledge, even awakening, by walking on foot – it is a practice that keeps one grounded to their roots," says Sharma, who hopes to conclude his march by June 14, 2019.
On his way across the country, Sharma is practising sanatana dharma, where he asks people for bhiksha in terms of food and overnight shelter in one's house. "Since I am funding this walk, I cannot afford to stay in a hotel in every city or village I visit. I ask for bhiksha for food and shelter – and up till now, I have been fortunate enough to get both," he says, grateful for the hospitality.
At the same time, Bakshi chose to walk because she wanted to make sure it was an informed, united fight. "Walking would keep me grounded, and updated about the struggles faced by women in even the remotest areas – that was the aim of our movement," she says.
Even as a dedicated youth takes charge of challenging societal ills, they are faced with scepticism.
"What is this awareness walk? How is this going to bring change? How are you going to tackle this issue all by yourself?" are just some of the questions Bakshi tells us she was often asked.
"It wasn't as if my movement was superficial. All my progress, plans in development, the entire journey, workshops and even profiles of inspirational women we met through the walk was documented online on the app and the website. Despite our constant struggle to get to the root of the issue, we were doubted," she rues.
Doubt stems from impatience, says Bakshi. "The youth today is informed, updated and opinionated. They want change, but how? What are they doing with this plethora of information they have available? We tend to doubt these initiatives and movements because change is slow and we tend to lose patience waiting for it."
This cynicism, Sharma thinks, is completely justified. "I happen to know of someone who claimed to have walked a 17,000km" – 17,000 he stresses again – "across the country for a cause they supposedly believed in. But it was all a publicity stunt to get press coverage for the NGOs that were associated with it. It is like a business!" he says.
So perhaps all endeavours should be met with cynicism? Child begging, women safety, blood donation – these are social causes that require a legislative push to ameliorate. So does walking help at all? Social thinker and columnist Shiv Visvanathan believes it does. "Walking has a different goal. The whole idea of walking is that it is a kind of satyagraha – a non-violent way of trying to persuade people, to get their attention to social causes. It is a kind of awareness, a limitation to contemplation. Walking also means listening, walking also means talking," he explains. "So you don't begin with legislation, you begin the other way round – you're not the expert. You are just trying to understand and amplify a certain problem and its possibilities. So that is where its power comes from if done properly," he explains.
Visvanathan concludes by saying that it is important, now more than ever, for us to support these movements. "Today, everyone thinks technology has the solution to most issues. So when you walk, you are down to fundamentals, it is just the body and your mind. These fighters are literally walking the talk!"
The sight of a nine-year-old high on drugs and begging was the final straw that pushed mechanical engineer Ashish Sharma, 28, to quit his job and go on a journey to give child beggars a better life.
Sharma is currently walking to Bihar,and funding his own journey. He follows the Sanatana dharma, which means asking for bhiksha – food and stay.
A mother-daughter duo gangraped in Bulandshahr in UP set marketing executive Srishti Bakshi, 31, on a walk from Kanyakumari to Kashmir to empower women.
Making a total of 110 stops across India, Bakshi conducted workshops to impart financial and digital literacy to women from the middle and lower strata.
Thirty-three-year-old Kiran Verma from Delhi couldn’t fathom how 12,000 Indians died daily because they didn’t have access to healthy blood.
In an attempt to change this narrative, the marketing professional set on foot, leaving behind his wife and a one-month old son, to spread awareness about timely blood donation.
