Indore : Under the collector’s special drive to reduce child beggars and help them lead a better life, seven kids were caught begging in Vijaynagar area. Among them, three were girls.
At the time of rescue, Sanjay Bhareswaj (District Women Empowerment Officer), Vijay Mishra (Superintendent Beggar Home), Gauri Tiwari (Special Juvenile Police Unit) and Brajesh Dhakad (Child Line City Coordinator) were present.
The members caught the kids from places such as parks, traffic signals, and religious spots and from crowded areas. The age of the rescued kids are between five and 10 years and they all were begging for their parents.
The strange fact about the beggar-kids was discovered, when the administration came to know that their parents were healthy and fit enough to earn but even then they had forced their kids to beg.
These kids have been kept at the beggar home and will be present to the Child Welfare Committee on Monday.
The committee will warn their parents to stop sending their kids for begging, as the initial measure. And if the kids will again traced begging then provisional action will be taken against the parents. According to the Child Line City Coordinator, Brajesh Dhakad, “Although we are directly involved in a mission to reduce child beggars from the city but this is responsibility of the common people to not encourage the beggars by giving them money with the intension of mercy.” The kids earn enough money because people easily give them money to feed them. But in reality they have enough to feed themselves and their parents.
Talking about the negatives of child begging, he said, begging children have made their parents lazy, who do not want to work.
ASI of Special Juvenile Police, Gauri Tiwari looked firm on her stance of removing child beggars and said, “We are sure to remove child beggars from the city, but for this we would need support of the people and the general masses. One should stop giving money to beggars”. People give money due to mercy but their kind intention promotes begging and their parents misuse the money in practices such as smoking and drinking”, she added.