Not all heroes wear capes – some do selfless service without expecting anything in return.

At some point or the other, most of us may have witnessed this incident – an old, impoverished person in torn, dirty clothes trudging from vehicle to vehicle pleading for some money which they count on to fill their stomach. Sometimes, we stop by to give them some money with a generous heart. Sometimes, we walk past them, with a mind ahead, paying no heed to their pleas, wondering, “Why do they beg when they are fit enough to work?”

But when Naveen Kumar encounters a beggar on the streets, he does not wait for them to approach him. Rather, he goes to them voluntarily, not to give them money, but to give them a life with dignity. For him, begging is not a problem of the roads, but a glaring problem that faces the nation. Having set his mind on creating a beggar-free India, Naveen Kumar and his team have rehabilitated 1480 beggars successfully to date, and their efforts continue.

But he refuses to use the term ‘beggars’. “They are also just like us – they are one among us. We must address them with more respect,” says Naveen Kumar, who calls them the ‘destitute’. Following his example, many media outlets and the government, too, have since then used the word ‘destitute people’.

Today, the Atchayam Trust for rehabilitating the destitute, started by Naveen Kumar, rebuilds their lives not just by giving them a new job but also a new style with haircuts, shaves, new clothes, and a new appearance.

Pain of poverty and hunger

As a 19-year-old boy, Naveen Kumar was in Salem preparing for the GATE exam. During his tea breaks, he found himself surrounded by many beggars. Naveen Kumar would give them all that he had saved for dinner and sleep with an empty stomach, but with a heart filled with happiness at having been able to help someone.

“During that time, I had also started reading Swami Vivekananda’s books. The lines in his book deeply motivated me. ‘The future of India rests in the hands of its youth’ stayed with me always,” shares Naveen Kumar.

However, he was aghast to find out that a young man tricked people into giving him money by weaving sympathy and used all the money to buy drugs. He was not a beggar, but had resorted to begging to buy drugs. Deeply distraught by the incident, Naveen Kumar thought, “If the foundational pillar of the........

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