The success story of Anshu Gupta is adventurous, inspiring, self-encouraging, and motivational. It will surely help you to plan your goals more clearly in life.
Name: Anshu Gupta
Founder: Goonj
Place of Birth: Meerut, Uttar Pradesh – India
Profession: Social Activist
Website: goonj.org
Facts about Anshu Gupta :
Anshu is an Indian social activist, who is also the founder of Goonj. Goonj is an NGO that runs with the objective of utilizing waste urban materials, as tools to develop rural parts of India. Anshu was born in Meerut, but raised in different parts of the country. He spent most of his initial period in Bareilly, Chakrauta, and Banbasa.
Gupta’s father kept visiting to the smaller towns of UP as he was serving the Indian Army’s Military Engineering Services. After his graduation, Anshu came to Delhi and completed a PG diploma in Journalism. Anshu also obtained one more PG Diploma in Advertising and Public Relations from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication. Anshu is also an MA in Economics.
After possessing a few years’ experience of working in corporates, he launched Goonj in 1999. The project was launched with Anshu’s better half, Meenakshi Gupta along with a few friends. Initially, the business was like a baby and the set up was working on the basic need of clothing. This was the priority for the business. Slowly, the project triggered more opportunities in other subjects like; water, environment, education, health, and roads in the rural areas.
Anshu has come a long way in the ups and downs of his project. Many stormy winds passed through his career too, but he has a spirit to continue with increasing efforts every day. Today, Goonj has reached a level, which is enjoying National and International recognition. Goonj is a social cause and what an amazing cause! Rural India is targeted to be not rural anymore. It is Anshu’s efforts and hard-work that has brought the campaign to this height.
Related : Aditi Gupta Founded Menstrupedia : A Friendly guide To Help Girls and Women during Periods
Visions and Goals :
In one of his interviews, Anshu expressed his visions and goals; “It is an act of killing someone’s dignity right from the childhood itself!. Rural people are ultimately pushed to urban slums to survive. How many beggars have you ever seen in rural India? I think the biggest asset of rural people is their self-respect & dignity. Beggars are not found in the villages. Begging is a city phenomenon then why do we think of charity while working for rural poor? Why do we always call them beneficiaries? A so called poor farmer is the biggest giver to people like us, their dignity matters!! They don’t come to you- you go to them.”
Achievements and Rewards :
Anshu Gupta’s efforts brought him global popularity. He earned honorable awards like;
- Ramon Magsaysay (2015)
- Ashoka Fellowship
- Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship (2012)
Motivational Factor from Anshu’s Story:
Anshu Gupta is one of the highly acclaimed social activists, who have worked selflessly with no personal motives. The way he takes pride in respecting villagers of India, he is a true human to mankind. When he began his project, he didn’t know that people will appreciate his work. It is Anshu’s faith that he has traveled this far.
I am sure Anshu’s daughter is blessed to have a father like him, who is a real teacher and a preacher of humanity. His thoughts are pure and so are his deeds towards the rural people. More than the books, we must train our children to be good by our actions. As they say, actions speak louder than words. Anshu is inculcating high moral values and cultural respect in the next generation. He has my respect for this!
There is one more thing I have observed, you must not help those in need; you must reach to help before the need arises. If we prepare ourselves to eradicate the common issues of the society pre-handedly, there will be no need of a support system in the later stages. All this can happen if we get united and remember the fact that we are humans! This is what Anshu is doing.
Money doesn’t make us rich, it is anyway going to leave us with our last breath, what we will take along is respect and honor of people in this world. Keep doing good deeds and do not think of the results. These results will anyway float in the form of smiles and blessings to you in abundance.
Header image source
