BANGALORE: Nine-year-old Mamata (name changed) dreaded returning home without Rs 200 in her tiny pocket after begging all day on the streets of Bangalore. Her mother and her companion had set the child a daily target of Rs 200 every time she was sent out to the streets.
Such stories unfolded after Bangalore police and the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) rescued over 300 children with help from NGOs in a day-long Operation Rakshana on December 2. The children had been pushed into begging.
Police identified locations frequented by these children using a mapping software. This was followed by raids at 282 locations. Of the rescued children, 47 have been admitted to government schools. Police arrested seven people for pushing these children into begging. The accused have been identified as Ramprasad, Jagadish, Mehaboob, Mangal Bogare, Ram Swaroop, Sangamesh and Prasanna Kumar. The background of these individuals is yet to be confirmed, the police said.
Mamata was brought to Bangalore from Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh three years ago. She lived with her mother and her companion, both of whom lived off her earnings. The couple fled after police rescued Mamata. She alleged they forced at least 10 other minors into begging.
Kids from Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and, recently, from Bangladesh are forced into begging in Bangalore. They said begging here is more lucrative than in Delhi and Mumbai.
Bangalore police commissioner B G Jyothi Prakash Mirji said, “A child gets 50 paise or Re 1 in cities across Bihar or Andhra Pradesh. But a Bangalorean gives a childbeggar anywhere between Rs 5 and Rs 10,” adding, “The number of children found begging in Bangalore is increasing at an alarming rate. We’re trying to track the miscreants who force them to beg here. There are allegations that some kids are maimed to increase earnings.”
Most children found begging are from poor families of vagabonds, scrap merchants and ragpickers. Many parents force their children into begging. But there are also people who employ children for begging after giving their parents some money. “An employed man and his wife lent their child to a woman beggar on an hourly basis recently,” Mirji said.
At traffic signals, woman beggar holding a sleeping child is a common sight. Preliminary probe found these children were drugged to ensure they remain asleep. “We sent their blood samples to laboratories to check for the drugs used. The report is likely to come next week,” Mirji said.
The December 2 raid was the result of a police officer’s follow-up action. He had spotted a girl begging daily at a busy intersection in Bangalore. The girl vanished and the officer wondered what happened to her. Two months later, she reappeared at the same spot with a bowl in her hand but she had lost an arm.
The police officer began looking into the girl’s case and found she was forced into begging. “Apparently, an organized gang which employed her had severed her arm,” said the officer.
How it was busted
- Police identified locations frequented by child beggars using a mapping software
- Raided 282 locations, rescued over 300 children with NGOs’ help
Of the rescued, 47 children admitted to government schools
