The founder of Goonj, Anshu Gupta 
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Anshu Gupta through Goonj has brought back dignity to the act of giving and wants it to become a movement 

The Ramon Magsaysay Award winner talks about how he doesn't mind people replicating the model of his foundation, Goonj which was started back in 1999 

Seema Rajpal

Anshu Gupta thinks of TED Talks as one of the most beautiful platforms for disseminating information, especially the part where the crux of the idea is derived quickly, rather than dragging it into a one-hour-long presentation.

He is not new to the platform of TED and nor are we new to his work which engages rural people in community projects and gives them under-utilised urban material like clothes, in which case, "the material becomes their reward and the new currency for development." This concept restores the dignity of labour as opposed to charity. This not only bridges the gap between urban and rural resources, it brings back dignity to the act of giving. This successful model is being practised in over 22 states, but Gupta wants to go deeper and wants people to replicate and copy his idea if it works for them. "Ultimately, we want to grow, not as a programme or an organisation, but as an idea and a movement," he says.

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