The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Begging unabated in Kochi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 10, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Begging unabated in Kochi

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Efforts to check people from employing children in begging have not yielded much result in the city, as the trend continues unabated. Despite attempts by various agencies and official machinery, children can still be seen begging at many points, mostly at traffic lights.

In a related development, Janaseva Sisubhavan, one of the agencies involved in rehabilitation of street children, rescued a couple of children found begging at Vytilla Junction last week.

There were media reports of one of the child having acid burns, allegedly caused by those who have employed it for begging. However, it was, later, realised that these children were with their parents and the injury was caused by a motor accident, said P. Sunil Nair, an advocate, who took up the cause of Jagdish Maharaj and his wife.

The family belonged to Bud Gujjar nomadic tribe from Rajasthan and were wrongly addressed as beggar mafia in the media reports. On furnishing the records, the children were released from Panangad Police Station and they were dropped at Ernakulam South Railway Station for their return to Bangalore.

But they were picked up by Childline members from the railway station and shifted to Relief Settlement at Palluruthy. From there, they had to be released again and were sent to Bangalore, Mr. Sunil Nair said.

The children were picked up from the road to Ernakulam South Railway Station, after they were found begging, said Jose Koikkal, director, Childline.

Though it tried to help them, these people refused to board the train and continued begging. They were taken to Relief Settlement in consultation with the police team that was present, he said.

Addressing the media at the press club here on Monday, Jose Maveli, president of Janaseva Sisubhavan, said a presentation had been made to the Chief Minister for stricter implementation of rules banning employing of children in begging.

In the absence of support from law, there is little voluntary organisations could do in restricting the number of children being employed in begging, Mr. Maveli said.

The literary critic M.K. Sanoo, who was present at the press conference, said that though laws were there to check children from begging, they were not being implemented strictly.

The actor Kaviyoor Ponnamma was also present.

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