Kumar left his home in Bihar to start a new life for himself in Jalandhar. Unable to catch a break, his opportunities thwarted by his handicap, the livewire briefly relocated to Chandigarh in 1985 before finally heading to Delhi in search of a better future.
Kumar was one among the human corral that streamed into Delhi from states like West Bengal, Bihar and UP in those years—all handicapped, all seeking opportunities. Most set up camp in Delhi’s Connaught Place. “We started begging outside the Hanuman temple and slept on the footpath,†Kumar says. “Once, the Social Welfare Department came and picked up five to six of us. Only then did we learn that under the Supreme Court of India directive, begging is illegal.â€
Though distraught at this revelation, Kumar did not give up. He and others in his group discussed ways to start work of their own. “About 150 of us begged and Rs. 5 each was pooled into a corpus. When the amount reached about Rs. 500-700, a particular member of the group was given the money; he would, in turn, buy fruits, pencils and pens and resell it on a tricycle in the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) area. In this way, business grew and people started finding work and could finally stop begging,†Kumar recalls.
Often driven away by the police, the group actively looked for places to stay. Some found a dilapidated building and started living there; others took houses in slums on rent. But, seven months later, the government demolished the house they were living in.
Homeless once again, the group moved to the vacant plot adjoining the demolished building. Their business, too, suffered a setback when the NDMC seized the tricycles that were used for selling goods. “We sold fruits, pens, pencils and anything conceivable on the streets of Delhi to ensure a livelihood,†Kumar recounts. Kumar and his friends approached officers of all levels at the NDMC so they could sell goods on the streets once again.
Despite months of unrelenting effort, the corporation did not yield. In 1987, the group started a hunger strike for 15 days outside the NDMC; finally, they succeeded in eliciting a promise to let them return to selling goods on the streets without any harassment.
The joy was short-lived, however; within six months, Kumar and his mates were once again at the receiving end of NDMC’s ire. Resorting to hunger strikes once again, Kumar soon became the leader of the group and succeeded in persuading the corporation in allowing them tos start their business.
For the next nine years, the cat and mouse game continued. Eventually, in 1996, the NDMC asked Kumar to remove his roadside garments shop in Connaught Place. By then, Kumar had had enough and soon decided to apply for a PCO/STD under the scheme for handicaps. “One needed to be 40 percent handicapped to be eligible [for this scheme]; he also had to be a standard 10 pass out living in the NDMC area. Since I met all these criteria, I decided to apply for an allotment,†Kumar says.
After much effort, Kumar’s name came up in the draw and he was allotted a PCO booth in the Chanakyapuri area in 1999. He soon started looking for financial assistance to purchase the required equipment. With no prior work experience and with savings of about Rs. 20,000, Kumar was in no position to start a telecom services business. Fortunately, Father Devdas, a director at the NGO Chetnalaya, whom Kumar often bumped into, referred him to the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), an organization that helps young, aspiring entrepreneurs.
With a loan of Rs. 41,800 from BYST, Kumar’s dream of having his own business started to take shape. Setting up his unit in a small corner of a posh market, Kumar faced hostile shop owners who were not keen on having a handicapped person around the area.
Today, Kumar has since diversified to include other services, such as an internet cafe. Currently, he owns eight STD/ISD/Fax machines and six computers for his internet business. “I will soon start selling mobile accessories and mobile connections,†says Kumar. As his store is located in a prime market area adjacent to the diplomatic missions, many of his services are at a premium. “The area is such that nobody minds paying the rates I have kept. Being in a market area that’s regularly visited by tourists and foreigners has only added to my business,†Kumar explains. Last year, his annual turnover was Rs. 10.8 lakh; and is expected to remain flat this year.
As his business booms, Kumar is enthusiastic about setting up his own shop in the future. “Since this is an NDMC establishment, the sense of security is missing,†he says. “They may ask me to vacate the shop any day. Now, I would like to have something of my own.â€
Kumar’s accounts:
• BYST LOAN: Rs. 41,800
• OWN CONTRIBUTION: Rs. 25,000
• OTHER LOANS: Nil
• TOTAL INITIAL INVESTMENT: Rs. 66, 800
• REPAYMENT OF LOAN: 100 percent
• NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES: 3
• ANNUAL TURNOVER: Rs. 10 lakh