Varanasi start-up feted for helping beggars become entrepreneurs
The Executive Director at IMF and former chief economic advisor to the Government of India, Dr KV Subramanian, also praised the Beggars’ Corporation.
LUCKNOW A Varanasi-based start-up, Beggars’ Corporation, which has taken the responsibility of turning beggars into entrepreneurs, received the Best Social Impact Award in the Innopreneurs Global Startup Contest on Sunday evening in Nagpur.
Besides the Beggars’ Corporation, startups from different sectors and countries -- including Cookie Langs, Inc from New York and MeMeraki from Sydney -- were adjudged as the Top 25 Innovative Startups in the six-month-long contest.
Speaking on the feat, Chandra Mishra, convener of Common Man Trust and founder of Beggars Corporation, said, “Organised by Lemon Ideas in collaboration with Startup India, around 3,000 startups were part of this contest that targets to foster global entrepreneurial tribe. The Beggars’ Corporation is the only for-profit company in the world working to make extremely poor creators and owners of wealth. That’s why we were given the Best Social Impact Award.”
He added, “Aligned to the idea of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, Beggars’ Corporation makes beggars self-sufficient by turning them into entrepreneurs by converting donations into social investments.”
The Executive Director at IMF and former chief economic advisor to the Government of India, Dr KV Subramanian, also praised the Beggars’ Corporation. On January 16, in a LinkedIn post, he called the Beggars’ Corporation “the most creative and potentially extremely impactful initiative”.
Quoting statistics, Mishra said, “You will be surprised to know that Indians donate ₹34,242 crore annually (according to figures of Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation report 2017) to India’s 413,670 beggars (figures from the ministry of social justice and empowerment).”
He added, “I thought if that amount is invested, it would create more wealth. In India, West Bengal has 85,000 beggars, followed by Uttar Pradesh which has 65,835 beggars in the state, that’s why I decided to work here and chose Varanasi which is home to more than 12,000 beggars -- out of whom 6,000 are healthy adults. If the donated money is used for training these beggars into employment generators, it would change the picture of the economy. I am trying to do that.” He further said, “Beggars’ Corporation is working out employment models and building capacities for the startups without help from the government.”
