As soon as there is a red light at most of the traffic signals in South Delhi, some seven-eight year old girls come with an iron ring, a boy plays the dholak and the girl shows some tricks. After a few minutes, their hands are spread for alms. They may be happy to get some money by performing some feat, but no government or voluntary organization is bothering to consider how expensive this happiness will be for this country. According to UNICEF, seven crore child laborers have increased in the country in the last six years. The report of International Labor Organization (ILO) and UNICEF says that in the year 2016, there were about 9.40 crore child laborers across the country, which has now increased to 16 crore. It is unfortunate that these children who beg on the street in every city and town are rarely involved in child labour.
Apart from begging at traffic signals, singing songs in train-bus, these innocent people are used in other ways. Some children (especially girls) will be seen distributing pamphlets in the crowd that they are dumb, they should be helped. The game of extorting money by pretending to be sick or dead by making small children lie on the middle of the road has now spread to small towns. In religious places like Mathura, Kashi, begging in the name of child celibates is on full swing. Apart from this, in the name of work like performing magic or snake-mongoose games, sweeping the second class coaches and dusting the dust of cars and scooters at the intersections, children will be found openly in the name of begging. It is estimated that some fifty lakh children in the country are laying the foundation of an indolent and laborless India with outstretched hands.
In the seventies, some such gangs were exposed in different parts of the country, who used to abduct well-meaning children and make them beg in a hideous manner. But by the turn of the nineties, the complexion of this problem changed. Apart from such gangs, the bloodsuckers who were born from the slum culture in metros, are now pushing their own children into beggary. A child begging in buses with a harmonium came to know that his parents wake him up at six in the morning, and push him to bus routes that are frequented by office-goers.
Hungry children climb from one bus to another till 12 o’clock in the day and keep chanting. After that, again from 4.30 pm to 8.00 pm, they go around in buses. They earn an average of Rs 50 to 75 per day. They mostly live on footpaths. Mother begs, father spends the day getting intoxicated. The money to buy drugs comes from the hard work of the children. It has also been seen that begging girls become mothers by the age of 14 and a skinny child on a thin body becomes a good ‘means’ of earning.
Under the Child Labor Prevention Act and Beggary Prevention Act, there is a provision of imprisonment of one to three years for begging, but in many states Samperes, Madaris, Nuts, Sadhus etc. are considered to be protectors of ancient Indian folk-arts and culture and they are outside the purview of this Act. However, no government department takes the trouble to catch beggar children. Then, if you think of correcting this social problem with the help of legal means, then failure will be at hand. The condition of the child reform homes of the country is no more than that of the criminal factory. Here, there have been allegations of children being beaten to death. Children suffering from hunger are also victims of sexual abuse.
The discussion of child beggary problem would seem incomplete without child labour. The slogans of prevention of child labor of the organizations running in the name of saving children from child labor in the country seem to wander only around those industries whose products earn foreign exchange for the country. Neither the law nor the government is capable, nor the society is aware, to fulfill the stomach and intellectual needs of the child suffering from hunger. In such a situation, if a child starts learning such a technical work from childhood, which not only becomes a means of earning his livelihood, but also helps in the economic system of the country, then it is auspicious.
The organizations and personalities campaigning for the liberation of children from export factories, ignoring the infants who spread their hands on the streets, exposes the ugly face of their love and loyalty towards their children. Be it the ‘National Child Policy’ formulated on August 22, 1974 or the National Education Policy of 2020 for the physical, mental and social development of children, at present all the papers seem to be roaring like a lion. All children need that humane approach which can fulfill the desires of the innocent heart more than the slogan of right to education.
(These are the personal views of the author.)