Mangaluru: When it comes to giving alms/donations, many of us Mangaloreans are very kind hearted and generous. But with the all scam happening in India where parents in the name of some NGO/ashram/shelter homes use their children to beg, and live a happy life on the easy money earned through child begging- we need to be careful as to whom we are giving our hard earned money. People have to stop giving money to these fake beggars. If you feel pity for these child beggars offer them food instead of money – Because the money is never used by them and they have to give it to their parents and others who are forcing them to beg… so what we saw on the movie “Slumdog Millionare” was true and these rackets are present even today. We have to pledge ourselves to at least try and save these kids from getting into such business and trouble. Keep an eye and inform the concerned authorities quick .
Here is one story that I would like to bring to your notice so that our readers are alerted about the fake begging going around in town. I along with my friend were dining at KFC-Kadri around 2pm or so- a tiny boy walks in with a sheet with contents which said, ” We are inhabitants of Ranipur Village are dreesed to natural calamities and have lost our house and property. We are not standing for food and oven clothes to were- are requesting your good self to kindly help us generously and we have to shelter to live”.(Refer photocopy of the donation sheet published below) The grammar/contents which didn’t seemed right to me raised some doubts, which led to me questioning the boy in details. Even the donation sheet had no authentic seal of the NGO nor a authorized signature of concerned official.
I was on a mission to find the truth behind this begging racket. I asked the boy who was along with him, he replied saying that he with his sisters and parents. So I asked him to go and bring his elders- and I kept the donation sheet with me. He comes back only with his elder sister- I insisted that he brings his parents too. At this moment, both the boy and his sister were shaky, and tried to pull the donation sheet back from me, which they didn’t succeed. Looking at their rude behavior I got so fuming that I said to them “Come, let’s go to meet your parents right now”. I knew this begging was something fishy, and it turned out to be a scam.
In the meantime, I told my friend Kevin to call the police- he dialed 100, where it got connected to Bengaluru police (what a nice system)- the police personal suggested my friend to use local telephone code before dialing 100- and he succeeded the second time in getting in touch with Kadri Police station. The police department promised to send the police van with constables within few minutes, but all in vain. No cops showed up at all- isn’t it nice to have such kind of police in time of help?
Following the boy, his sister and one more girl, I was introduced to two ladies who were waiting near a meat shop inside Kadri Market. These two ladies were well-dressed in glittering sarees and bunch of jewellery adored on them. They even had purchased few kilos of Chicken and mutton from the meat stalls at the market, and I also could see one of the bags had couple of liquor bottles. Seeing this I yelled at the ladies saying, ” You are enjoying a lavish life on our hard earned money. Look at all the expensive neat you have bought, I just had a cheap sandwich for lunch. Also look at the booze in your bag. Look at the expensive dress and gold you are wearing” . I was hoping that the police would arrive soon- but no luck.
With my continuous questioning, the ladies got nervous and tried to run away from there. Being a male I couldn’t do much by grabbing hold of females, but some of the fisher-women who were watching could have got into action and caught hold of the ladies, but they didn’t, instead remained numb like pillars! Knowing that no one was supporting me, the two ladies along with their kids quickly stopped a auto-rickshaw and drove away. But the worst part was that for an hour no police arrived even though they were called for.
While inquiring I found out that these ladies were from Rajasthan, and have been in Mangaluru since few months. Anyways, although these ladies escaped from me this time, I am hoping that sooner or later they will be trapped by someone else. If you come across kids going around with a donation sheet just like the one published here, don’t patronize them, instead catch them and call the police. We need to stop this fake begging in name of NGO going around in the City. The parents/traffickers use the children as begging ‘props’ to maximize their earnings from sympathetic passers-by. If you all remember that the plight of India’s child beggars had been thrust into the international spotlight by Slumdog Millionaire, the British-made film couple of years ago. Behind the cinema fantasy, parents/traffickers are still deliberately crippling children for profit.
Sources reveal that the number of children found begging in cities is increasing at an alarming rate. We need to track the miscreants who force these children to beg for their personal gains.There are allegations that some kids are maimed to increase earnings. But there are also people who employ children for begging after giving their parents some money. I read a news that an employed man and his wife lent their child to a woman beggar on an hourly basis recently.
In conclusion, if the Giving Stops, the Begging will also stop, lets bring about a change, giving money to small kids is endangering them and encouraging child trafficking and kidnaps. What I came across is a serious issue which needs to be stopped soon. It is important that this does not remain a one-off action against organized begging. Such gangs are known to exist since long. Several movies have depicted this. Yet, the law enforcement agencies have lacked focus/seriousness in tacking this problem. It is necessary that the perpetrators of this crime are tracked down and brought to justice. The problem exists in all cities. Nobody takes it seriously- it’s time to act and stop child-begging who are forced by the adults/traffickers. In the meantime, keep an eye for these two women/may be more and kids going around begging in town.
Work builds, charity destroys.