It’s raining heavily in a small slum dwelling in Southern Delhi. Under a dilapidated leaking roof, seven years old Priya is shivering while holding her younger sister in arms, making the infant cozy with her body. The eldest of all five siblings, Priya lives with her parents in Safdarjung. Her father is a gardener in a money plant farm and her mother does petty chores like sewing torn clothes roadside. The last time Priya saw the inside of a school was when she was five years old. Months after her fifth birthday, she was asked to discontinue her education due to her inability to pay the school fees. Priya outgrew her only pair of shoes seven months ago, and her mother kept them aside for when her sister turns six. She often looks at the planes in the skies, which look like giant shoes with arms, and thinks about having a new pair all to herself.

She is not alone though. Did you know that over 20 million children in the Sub-Sahara, where temperatures often reach over 100º F, are denied the simple choice such as owning and wearing a shoe, year after year?  A statistic released by Shoes for Souls Organization showed that over 300 million kids worldwide are without shoes and 1.4 Billion people are susceptible to diseases that could easily be prevented by a decent pair of shoes. Something as simple as wearing a shoe prevents hookworm disease, transfer of helminthes infection from the soil, blisters, animal bites, tetanus and tungiasis.

Going without shoes for too long can cause corns, ingrown toenails, fungal nail infections and problems like athlete’s foot. Wearing shoes does not just make walking painless, but shoes have shown to alleviate actual pain. A part of the job of shoes is to absorb impact as we walk, but bad shoes (or no shoes) can throw the whole body out of alignment. If shoes don’t have enough padding, pain is an inevitable side effect. The ankles, knees, hip joints and lower back are all affected by bad shoes. Widespread pain limits mobility, making it difficult to perform normal daily tasks such as walking to the bathroom. This means that simply by jumping in the puddles in rainy weather, Priya may be enjoying her childhood, but her naked feet are susceptible to rashes, infections, tick bites, diabetes; which left unattended can even lead to amputation.

The problem of shoes just not just raises the problem of economic and social disparity, but also important questions related to the importance of shoes. From physical improvement to being able to participate in the society, shoes can prevent foot injury, heal injuries, improve the quality of life, aid expression of self and expand an individual’s career options by allowing them to work in dire circumstances.

Priya is not the only child facing these dire consequences but she is also not alone. SHARP wanted to preserve both her childhood and her tiny feet. Last September, Priya and her brother Deepak visited a shoe distribution drive by SHARP and BATA. She was given new sneakers, a pair of slippers and a promise to enjoy the rain puddles for all the days to come. Priya never has to look up to the skies again. Her giant airplanes with arms were now in her very own arms!

SHARP NGO in collaboration with BATA Shoes set on a conquest of challenging this shoe problem with “Stride to Pride” Campaign where we collect used shoes from schools across cities and BATA distributes equal number of new shoes to children. More than 30, 000 shoes have already been collected under this campaign and over 1 lakh shoes have been distributed all over the country. What made our approach unique was not the distribution of shoes, but joining the stories of two children together. We believe that the lifecycle of a shoe resembles that of the child who gives it. For every single smile on a child’s face, there is another child whose soul is uplifted. As the shoe travels, so does the spirit of the little one behind it. Who said foot care cannot be fun?

Priya only worries about flying now,

Because our airplanes are there

To worry about her Foot care!

Written by: Mahima Mehra, SHARP NGO