Begging racket exposes abuse and exploitation of children in Navi Mumbai
"As soon as I started video recording this assault on the girl child, the older woman gestured for all the kids to run away and laughingly told me that they were just 'joking and playing'. However, I told her that I called the police, and so they should face the consequences," said Shankar.
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When the Vashi police arrived at the spot, they only rounded up the woman and another adult to be taken to the police station. "At the police station, the woman started making threatening gestures towards me and told the cops that they only sell flowers and do not beg. They also boasted that they know some 'DCP' in Maharashtra who will help them out," said the activist.
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The police then called the ChildLine officials, who are linked to the Maharashtra govt for woman and child development. The cops did not lodge an FIR, as they said that for the first offence, they have to warn the beggars, and if they are caught again, then they are arrested and sent to beggars' homes, etc.
The activist Shankar said that these children do not get any basic education. To this, the ChildLine officials said that they will talk to NMMC to get some space in Vashi, where they can start the basic literacy of the beggar children. Altaf Kagazi of ChildLine told Mirror: "The beggars at Vashi belong to the Pardhi tribal community, which is quite backward in society. We will talk to the civic officials to start the basic literacy programme for beggar children."
Also, city activists said that despite police combing operations, the beggars often return to the streets after a few days, which indicates there are kingpins behind the
begging racket
who need to be busted. Otherwise, the future of begging children will remain bleak, said Shankar.
Last year, Mumbai Mirror also covered another cruel feature of the begging racket wherein small babies who are barely three to six months old are drugged by giving them some sedative so that they remain drowsy and sleep in the arms of an older beggar who begs at traffic signals, while showcasing the baby in arm to gain some pity from motorists.
New Panvel-based social activist, Pastor K M Philip, of SEAL Ashram, which rescues and shelters homeless persons, recalled how he once came across a very ill beggar girl (called Vidya) who was made to lie down on a foot-over bridge of Bhandup railway station by her handlers in 2001. Philip informed the railway authorities and also admitted the minor girl to a hospital, but she passed away, after only asking the social activist to give her a 'roti' when she briefly woke up at the hospital.
Philip recalled that the death of Vidya shook him up since she was suffering from TB and was also HIV positive, but still, she was forced to beg, by keeping a plastic begging bowl next to her. That particular day, when Philip admitted her, Vidya managed to collect Rs 65.50 in her begging bowl. Philip has kept this plastic jar with him all these years and called it 'Tears of Vidya'.
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