Introduction:
Children are considered to be assets of the future. They are the ones who are to be loved, educated and grown into good humans. In India, the right to education is a fundamental right which is granted to every child residing in this country. It is heartbreaking to observe that even after granting this right to every child. They are deprive of education either by their parents or because of the financial conditions of their family. These children who are deprive of this right are force to work, beg or help the adults in their activities. The aim is to earn some money to support their own family or just to sustain themselves.
Poverty and lack of education are the major factors that lead to impulsive act like a child begging in India. This is something which is frown upon by the society and lawmakers. But still is prevalent in our country due to lack of action taken and improper implementation of laws. This act of child begging has hounded the lives of thousands of children. They have lost their beautiful and innocent childhood by becoming slaves/beggars.
It is often observe by various surveys and NGO data that children from lower socio-economic strata are more likely to be abuse due to parental poverty. Hence, as a result, are force to beg so as they can supplement the total earning of the family. In addition to this, various kinds of rackets are also at play. Who not only mislead or mistreat the innocent children but even use drugs to sedate them. Handicapped children are often used for begging as this stimulates a feeling of sympathy in the common people. At times, they are even beaten up and physically harmed for this purpose. This can be seen in the Oscar-winning movie named “Slumdog Millionaire”. Where the protagonist and his friends were force to get their eyes burn so that they can earn more money by begging.
According to a report prepared by the NHRC of India, 40 thousand children are abduct each year. Over 25% of whom remain untrace.[1] Taking an estimate over 3 lakh children across India are force to beg using everything from addiction to drugs. Also to threats of violence and actual beatings. They are the foundation of a million-rupee industry that is run by cartels and mafia gangs. The sad part is that it is not properly address by/to the authorities.
The mafias and the cartels are not alone to blame. Parents also force their children to beg so as they can earn an additional income for themselves. It was observed by the Mumbai police[2] that many parents in the city can live a comfortable life by pushing their kids into begging. They use the facilities provide by the government for the Right to Education Act. Later don’t force their kids to not attend the school and beg instead on the streets. It is observe by the child welfare commission that when the rescue kids are send to shelters, parents would come to the shelter to retrieve their children, and again push them back into begging.
How can we help these children who are into begging?
It is often said that “a child is meant to learn and not earn”. But because of this problem of child begging the innocent kid is force to earn and not live his childhood. There are many things that we can do to help these children, some of the ways are below:
- Report to authorities
The thing that a person can do at ground level is report to concerned authorities. Children who are into begging often look distress, injure or show any signs of abuse. This must be report to the local Child Welfare Committee or police. Section 24 (1) of the Juvenile Justice[3], provides that “whoever employs or uses any juvenile or child for the purpose of begging or causes any juvenile to beg, can be imprisoned up to three years and shall also be liable to fine.” Section 24 (2) of the same actpunishes those who abet begging. Section 363A of the IPC[4] provides punishment for a person who kidnaps or maims a minor to beg. These are some of the laws that strictly prohibit child begging and hence the child can be rescued.
Begging is a crime in India under Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, and thus child beggars can be reported. At a normal basis, a person can just initiate a friendly conversation with them to inquire about how their caretakers treat them, what work they do etc.
- Volunteer at a Centre for Children
There are many leading child rights NGOs in the country. Many centres work at ground level to save these children who are into the job of begging. They provide them with food, education and counselling, and even rescuing in some cases. For example, A ‘Ride to School’ programme uses a Mobile Learning Centres to bring a classic school environment directly to children. These are some of the places where a person can volunteer and work at ground level.
- Support an NGO in fundraising initiative
If volunteering is not an option for some people. Then they can help out financially to the organisation who work for this cause. If a person can regularly give child beggars small handouts of cash; then the same person can afford a small amount to donate to charity. It is the fastest act of support for India’s street children. Often costs the same as an average person’s weekly budget of coffee or even wada-pav of a month etc. If not financially, the person can help the NGOs in it normal course like helping them in social media stuff, or advertise them at their place of work, malls, public places etc. where the organisation can earn a handful with less inputs.
- Others
Another some ways by which a person can help these kids which would take less efforts but still is effective to some extend is by not paying the child beggars. Paying any amount to these kids would only encourage them to beg more. When we excel in something, we become happy and tend to that activity more, similarly, these children earn a fair amount by begging and hence, their parents or their leader encourages them to beg more and earn them a good sum of money. Not giving money to these children who are force to beg will discourage their parents and leaders to send their kids to beg as they will now know that they won’t earn anything.
Conclusion
Children are regularly inflict with wounds, even mutilate so that they became more pitiable, and thus, earn more money from a sympathetic passer-by on the street. The kind-heart people who under the assumption that they are doing charity and good for the kid often don’t know that the money they give isn’t use to buy food, medicine, or access to education, but alcohol and drugs, and also to their traffickers.
Child begging is consider to be a crime in a country like India and is even consider to be an immoral act, as it not only adds money in the pockets of mafias and parents but also snatches the childhood from a child’s hands which he is entitle to. Many inspirational people are working for this cause of safeguarding the children like Kailash Satyarthi, who won the Nobel Prize for saving and helping poor children by his Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or J. Rama Chandra Sarath Babu who has saved many children from begging and many more. These people should be our inspiration and if we can agree that child begging is a serious problem in India, then we can also sympathise with them and start working to make a change. As there is extreme darkness in this field, one single ray of hope can make a huge difference.
References:
[1] Retrieved from NHRC report on missing children: https://nhrc.nic.in/sites/default/files/misc_MCRReport.pdf.
[2] Retrieve from save the children report: https://www.savethechildren.in/resource-centre/articles/how-children-are-forced-into-begging-by-cartels
[3] Care and Protection of Children Act 2000.
[4] Indian Penal Code, 1860.
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