Meet This Young Tamil Nadu Teacher Who Gave Jobs To 572 Beggars, Rehabilitated Over 5000

This young college professor has inspired hundreds of people to reach out and help those in need.

For six years now, P Naveen Kumar, who teaches at JKKN College, Erode, has been rehabilitating the homeless, and those begging on the streets.

BCCL

How did it all start?

¡°It started when I was doing my engineering degree. I had just Rs 10 as my pocket money for dinner so I would come across several beggars as I frequented the roadside stalls to buy food,¡± Naveen told The Better India.

¡°It was in 2014 that I visited a temple in Erode. An elderly lady asked for some money claiming to have been abandoned by her relatives. She needed the funds to get back home,¡± Naveen said, a student pursuing his third year of Mechanical Engineering then.

Naveen handed over Rs 15 to the lady, which was meant to get spent on his dinner. ¡°I had water to fill my stomach and slept, thinking of the lady,¡± he added.

Better India

What made him start it?

Sometimes beggars would come to him for money, so he would buy them dinner and go to bed hungry. ¡°My father is handicapped and my mother bedridden , so I know what it is like to be hungry, to have no money,¡± says the 26-year-old.

¡°The idea is to give them a chance at life. Some of the beggars turned out to be businessmen who had lost everything , or people with mental health issues who were thrown out by families, or just the elderly rejected by their families,¡± says Naveen.

Atchayam Trust

After successfully rehabilitating many in need, he decided to form the Atchayam Trust for beggar free India. Naveen continued his higher studies in Thermal Engineering until 2016 as well. He hit the most obvious problem immediately ¨C funds.

¡°I could not ask for money at home and started seeking donations and funds from my friends and college students. But they discouraged me saying that I am also begging for money like the beggars,¡± Naveen said.

Things changed after Naveen graduated, and took a job as a lecturer in the same college. Since 2016, with his salary, small donations, and a team of 400 volunteers across 18 districts through Atchayam Trust, Naveen has re-established 572 beggars and rehabilitated over 5,000.

Naveen first logs in details of the beggars from their life histories, supplies them with food, shelter, four sets of clothes, a clean shave, and then sets about getting them counseling and yoga lessons so they can be rehabilitated.

¡°I used to go around begging for money to fund the rehabilitation,¡± says Naveen, who is now trying the crowdfunding route via websites. It helped his cause that he was awarded for his service by the youth affairs ministry in 2015.

Over the years, he has taken in more than 5,000 beggars, placed some in government-run old age homes, or reunited them with families.