The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Beggary returns to traffic signals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 04, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Beggary returns to traffic signals

By K.V. Prasad

COIMBATORE, FEB. 3. After a break, beggary has returned to the traffic signals in the city.

As in earlier instances, `families' consisting of a mother, a daughter, a son and `injured' infant wrapped in torn clothes and carried by the `mother' have descended on busy traffic junctions.

Aggressive

This time, they are more aggressive.

They knock hard on windshield, or the windowpanes that are hurriedly raised at their sight until the inmates of cars offer alms. Or, the green signal will have to rescue the motorists, especially two-wheeler riders.

A brief wait on Avinashi Road-LIC Road junction near the VOC Park Grounds will provide an insight into the plight of the motorists.

The moment traffic comes to a halt at the signal, a medley of alms seekers speaking in a dialect that remotely sounded like Hindi seek alms.

Clearly, the ones prowling the signals now are not the organised gangs that had been formed in the city. These are nomadic groups, mostly from the central and northern parts of the country.

Sympathy of motorists

Children swathed in bandages, girls hobbling around with crutches or a woman with a shabbily dressed `wound' in her hand attempt to win the sympathy of the motorists.

No one dares question them. If a motorist is lucky, the signal will turn green by the time the alms seekers reach him. However, those waiting at the foot of the signal are never so fortunate.

They have to either browbeat the children or the adults into retreating or quickly hand over a coin or two before they start tugging at the motorists' hands or clothes to demand money.

Some of the gangs have hit upon an ingenious way of making money.

When some of their members seek alms, the others try to sell balloons by targeting children travelling in cars or on two-wheelers.

If begging does not click, they try out their marketing acumen.

Vantage points

The problem is not peculiar to a couple of signals. Like in the past, these `families' have chosen vantage points- almost all the busy traffic junctions.

What compounds the misery of the motorists is that the traffic police personnel look away instead of coming to their help.

A failure

The recurrence of the menace only points out that efforts to wean these people from beggary have failed.

A couple of years ago, rehabilitation organisations such as the Don Bosco Anbu Illam joined hands with the police and district administration to educate beggary gangs on the evils of involving children in beggary.

Special drives conducted

Special drives were conducted in the city and Tirupur for rehabilitation.

The adults were cautioned against abuse of children by pushing them into beggary.

The children were given a bath, provided fresh clothes and the adults given money to return to their native place. But, beggary gangs have returned at least twice after that.

Either the old ones resurfaced or new ones have taken their place.

Either way, this points to the absence of deterrent machinery that prevents hazards to motorists on roads with high volume of traffic.

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