Run, Delhi, Run!

Despite the blistering cold in the national capital, over 6,000 citizens woke up in the wee hours to promote health and fitness in India by participating in the Born2Run half marathon. This unique initiative, helmed by the Duayen Foundation with Born2Run as a partner, was a run to encourage the ‘eradication of child-begging from India by 2020’, which is in line with Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s Vision 2020.

Born2Run is Irin Sarna’s initiative. The 23-year-old comments, “In this fast moving life, somewhere we have not been able to cope up with health and fitness, and this (running) is mandatory to stay healthy if we want to give something (back) to our own civilisation.”

Ashish Sharma, Founder at Duayen Foundation, appreciates the initiative and its connect with child-begging. He states, “As an NGO, the initiative was helpful. Psychologically, you cannot break the hierarchy of child issues that stops their schooling, but if we stop giving alms to child beggars, we can decrease up to 68 per cent of crime and related issues. And, also, we are soon implementing modules with the administration that will ensure every child is going to a school.”

Despite the ongoing NRC/CAA protests, which made it difficult for the organisers to get permission from the police and traffic authorities, the event took place in a smooth manner. Soumil Jham, a 10th grader who participated in the run, shares his experience and says, “The quality of (the) experience was five star for everyone who came there — be it the management, the food, the route.”

For Jham, such events are important so that people can understand the running culture. He understands the necessity of such endeavours as, he comments, “If most of the youth is educated, there still won’t be any change in India because the education system has a lot left to achieve. There’s still a gap between getting education and getting educated in our nation.” Indeed, such initiatives tend to
bridge these gaps.

On a concluding note, Sharma says, “Indeed, the government is doing a lot, but the system of information flow is very weak in our country; so, the magnification towards the eradication of an issue does not happen.”