Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Nobody to LOVE
|
Child begging is rampant in the city. Most of them are from the neighbouring States. Despite sincere efforts to rescue such children by several organisations, the malady continues, unchecked, laments LEELA MENON.
|
Pic by H. Vibhu
NO ONE would ever have thought that begging would emerge as a very lucrative trade in Kerala, acquiring the status of a profession, or that children will be its tools of trade. Or that Kerala would be ranked as the most profitable State to beg, inviting a horde of children from all the Southern states and even from the North, all brought to the State with the sole purpose of earning though begging.
This has become evident from the situation prevailing in neighbouring Kothamangalam where the local beggar-labourers have organised themselves against the `imported beggars' who are dipping into their begging intakes. The local beggars had a fixed day for begging. When out-of-State beggars disturbed their begging routine, walking away with a sizeable amount in collections, they organised themselves and fixed the begging day according to their convenience.
Their action was inspired in the wake of a large influx of women and children into Kothamangalam from neighbouring States begging in the area, and of course taking away their entire collection. Begging has acquired global status, with even Gulf countries acknowledging that their dollars are diverted outside through misplaced generosity. The child beggars in the Gulf reportedly earn millions especially during the holy months.
Kerala was weaned on the myth that giving alms earns heavenly dividends. It is this culture that has imprinted Kerala as a beggar-friendly State. When the Corporation gets a brain brave to ban begging, beggars are nabbed by the police and taken to the Palluruthy Relief Settlement. Many a beggar there has told this correspondent that they have left their home State of Tamil Nadu or Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh to beg in Kerala because the people here are generous with their money.
Where a Tamilian gives five paise, the Malayali gives at least 50 paise. Even this has changed now and no respectable beggar would accept anything less than one rupee from the donor. Give a
50-paise coin and be sure that it would be thrown back at you, with an abuse. The Travancore Anti-vagrancy Act remains on paper. This generosity has become the bane of Kerala, with middlemen bringing, stealing, or enticing children to Kerala and putting them on the begging trail. Kerala is evolving into a child-trafficking capital. Many a child, tortured, carrying acid burns or deliberately inflicted bleeding wounds to activate the sympathetic nerve of the passer-by have been rescued by the people, or by the police and taken to Sisu Bhavan.
Vehicle owners are routinely harassed at traffic junctions by beggar-boys, with the police turning their faces the other way. Child abduction for begging has acquired a novel facet, with many such girls and boys inducted as domestic labourSays Anand, former coordinator of Childline, "Once, a girl was brought to Kerala on the promise to her parents that she would be educated here. But she was sent for begging. The Railway police rescued her and brought her to Childline. The Don Bosco fathers traced her family and took her back.
According to him many families from Andhra Pradesh come to beg in Kerala, bringing school-going children along with them. They are sent out to beg, often earning upto Rs.200 a day. They stay in make-shift tents in vacant places or slum areas for three months and return with sizeable amounts. When asked, one family said they were peanut farmers and when the peanut crop failed, they came to Kerala. They were planning to invest the money they earned through begging into farming back home. Facts are stranger than fiction!
Childline has rescued 94 children so far, including four kids from domestic labour, 20 sexually abused kids, 20 from hotel and petty shops and 43 from begging, and seven from the brick-manufacturing sector. This is apart from 15 children who were toiling at the rail trackaccording to Sunil, present coordinator of Childline.
Some times some family members themselves phone us about the ongoing abuse, which include sex abuse, Sunil said. There is no anti-trafficking committees in Kerala, as in Tamil Nadu or Karnataka and hence there is no restrictions on child-trafficking here, says Beena of Childline.
Two boys who were brought or bought from Bihar were being used by a person in Ernakulam who kept them locked up, without food. One of the boys was so desperate with hunger that he managed to escape but he was discovered by the owner who began to beat him on the street. Passers-by intervened and in the course of enquiries, it was discovered that the boys were without food for 25 days. Childline interceded and sent the boys back to Bihar.
It is quite common for neighbours to call Childline and say that certain families are employing girls around 11 or 12 as domestic labour,_Father Painad of Childline said.
There are agents who come to houses enquiring whether one needs a domestic help. Both in affluent families and dual- job-holding families domestic help is in great demand, a fact which is exploited by the child mafia. Kerala has become the Gulf for the beggar mafia, with children on the begging trail collecting even upto Rs.500 a day. Begging is controlled by a mafia and children on the begging trail have fixed routes and fixed monetary targets, failure of which can bring severe punishment. Which also reportedly force young girls to sell themselves to make up the deficit.
Many such girls are rescued and put in Valsalya Bhavan of the Corporation. Men and women come pretending to be parents but the child pleads that he/she be not given back, the sister in charge of Valsalya Bhavan said.
There are also floating families with children, bent on tapping the sympathy of passersby. Such children are given either tobacco juice or other drugs, to make them look sick and docile and mothers could be seen pointing to the child with extended arm for alms.
What is needed are inter-state committees to check trafficking and the setting of anti-trafficking committees, like Prerana in Maharashtra. Only governmental and social will can eradicate this expanding menace.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
