Earlier physically handicapped or destitute old persons used to beg for alms roaming in streets or sit infornt of temples.With the passing of time and due to various compulsion,even healthy persons also started begging.Besides,a big racket also allegedly active in Metros.The racket,used to collect a good share from beggers by alloting space for begging and also often lift kids and making them disabled to engage in begging.The irony is that,a sizable begger owns crores of rupees and also buildings.Nodoubt,consciousness among the people,such practice reduced to a great extent,still the practice is on.Now,many states imposed restriction of begging.During the ongoing campaign to make roads in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore beggar-free,the administration has rescued a middle-aged man, who had come from Hyderabad for begging in the city.The rescue operation was carried out by the MP State Woman and Child Development department who claimed to have recovered a train ticket (sleeper class) from Hyderabad to Indore and Rs 20,000 cash from his possession.The man was rescued last week and has been taken to a rescue centre, where he will be taken care of and would be counselled, the city’s district administration.In the last week,a woman also rescued from the city and took her to Ujjain. However, later it emerged that the woman was a ‘safai karmachari’ (sanitation worker) in the Indore Municipal Corporation.According to reports, the woman alleged that she was taken forcefully by a group of persons when she was sitting at a market after finishing cleaning work.However, Dinesh Mishra, Project Officer of the Child Development Department in Indore, denied the allegation, saying the woman was found begging at a temple, following which, she was rescued by a team of women officials under the campaign.The Indore district administration is running a campaign in the city so that children and women begging on roads could be rescued.
The city administration has deployed a dedicated team that look after this issue along with the other departments to introduce a grassroots campaign for this purpose.
The rescued child labourers/beggars are being given proper counselling followed by education and training so that they are properly rehabilitated and do not return to begging on the streets.”Rescued persons are counselled in three phases and if they are still found begging on the streets, then there is also a procedure for legal action against them,” Mishra said. A few days ago, the department had rescued a woman beggar near a temple in Indore, with cash money amounting to more than Rs 75, 000.During questioning, the woman confessed to having earned this money (over Rs 75000) within one month from begging in the area, the city administration claimed.
