After walking through Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and parts of Maharashtra, Honest Steps — a core group of 11 youths, most of them from Hyderabad — has reached Mumbai to spread the word about fight against corruption. Calling themselves ‘Honest Indians,' the youths plan to walk across the entire country to understand people's problems and spread the anti-corruption movement.
“We plan to walk through the city on Sunday [February 26]. Many NGOs have supported us and we expect at least 100 persons to join us in our 12-hour walk from the Gateway of India to Juhu,” Jawad Ali, a 22-year-old member of the group, told The Hindu .
‘Longest walk'
“This is the longest walk in a city till now. Before this, we had walked for five kilometres in the city. But this time on, we plan to walk the entire day,” he quipped.
Aged between 20 and 25 years, the members work with a non-governmental organisation Bhoomi in Hyderabad.
Their campaign was inspired by the anti-corruption movement. “Once we were debatingthe Lokpal Bill when we realised that Lokpal was not the ultimate solution for a corruption-free India, and till people personally took up the fight against corruption, it is difficult to weed it out,” Jawad said.
The debate prompted the youngsters to first understand the problems faced by the masses. “We decided to meet the people in the slums, in villages, in tribal areas to understand why they bow down to corruption. We saw that people vote after taking bribe from the candidates in the form of cash, liquor, clothes; but they expect the same candidates to be honest once they elect them. That is not fair,” he added.
‘Changed perception’
“We decided to talk to people, to request them to be honest while voting. Before we started the walk, we thought, everyone has the same set of problems. But our walk has changed our perception,” he said.
Some of the youths left their jobs to join the walk. Madhav Rao, a 24-year-old, worked with Amazon before he decided to quit to walk throughout the country.
It was Abdul Mujid Khan, a 39-year-old leadership trainer for corporate bodies, who inspired the youths to take up the cause. While Fasi Ziaee, Uday Penumarthi, Shehzad Ziaee, Zia Ali, Anoop Shekhar, Umair Hasan, Faiz Rai, Vivek Reddy are among the core team members who are in the campaign since the beginning, there were many who had joined in between for a few days, and then went back to their own schedules.
But one person joined them impromptu, and stayed with them throughout. Socrates, as the team has named him, is a hearing-impaired homeless person from Adilabad who started walking with the group when it reached the city. He has continued the walk with them since then.
Future strategy
For all the members, the walk is part of a larger campaign which will be defined only after they complete this task. “By April 7, we plan to reach Rajghat in New Delhi. We will celebrate April 8 as ‘Zero Corruption Day' when we will request people to stay honest for at least that day. We will decide the future strategy after that,” Jawad said.
