Beggar-free India campaign: Crusader against child begging Ashish Sharma reaches Tezpur

Beggar-free India campaign: Crusader against child begging Ashish Sharma reaches Tezpur
A Correspondent

Tezpur: Delhi youth Ashish Sharma wants to eradicate beggary from the nation. Presently he is on the trail of his ‘ Beggar-free India ’ campaign that began on foot from Jammu. Ashish Sharma, 29, who is a mechanical engineer by profession has sacrificed his job in a multi-national company and started campaigning for ‘Beggar-free India.’ He has planned to travel 17,000 km across the nation and has already covered 8057 km.

In an interaction with media persons here Ashish Sharma narrated how one evening while 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, gave him first aid, some new clothes and got him enrolled in a nearby school. The incident changed his life. Deciding to pursue this issue, he quit his job and embarked on a journey to cover the entire country on foot to create awareness against children begging.

“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, 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 countrywide tour was perhaps the best way to meet the masses,” he said. He started his journey from Jammu on August 22, 2017, and reached Tezpur on Thursday on foot.

He said he traveled around 30 to 40 km a day and met thousands of people to make them aware of the welfare schemes that could change an individual’s life. So far, he has covered around 8057 km in 15 states.

Akin to Ashish's " Beggar-free India " campaign, many educated youths of the country are coming forward with an innovative approach and sending a strong message to the society regarding existing social evils like child begging, human trafficking, superstitions etc.

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