For 12-year-old Akash from Dehradun, who used to beg alms until last year, education was only a distant dream.
After joining a government school, this dream came true. “Last year, the police uncle I was admitted to this school. They gave me clothes and books. I scored 83.6 percent in my (annual) examination,’ says Akash, who loves to speak English. Uttam India.
“English and Mathematics are my favorite subjects. I want to be a software engineer when I grow up. My father wants me,” says the Class 4 boy, whose father works as a laborer to support his family. Due to financial crisis, Akash was forced to beg.
Today’s children are tomorrow’s wealth. But education – a fundamental right – remains an elusive fantasy for many oppressed and poor children, who are often pushed to beg by their parents. Their dreams dashed, thousands of people weave their way daily through the crowds to tea shops, markets, over bridges, signals, buses and trains, begging for alms from each passerby with innocence in their eyes.
Decades after the enactment of the Children’s Act, 1960, the problem of child begging is still a matter of concern for the country.
Salvation from begging
To rid children of begging, the Director General of Police (DGP) Uttarakhand launched a special campaign in 2017 – Operation Mukti.
“Operation is the purpose of liberation Salvation (Liberation) from child begging and labour. We need to ensure that their childhood is not wasted. People think they are helping these children by giving them money. In fact, it is pushing them into child begging,” says DGP Ashok Kumar Uttam India.
“Don’t beg, educate“He adds. The slogan of the campaign is ‘don’t beg, give education’.
What moved Kumar was when a child was begging in front of a police vehicle, but the DGP wanted to find a better solution instead of offering Rs 5 or 10.
“We wanted to help them organically by rooting it out. Due to lack of education, some children may turn to crime. Their tendency to commit crimes will also stop when they go to school. We want to mainstream them,” says Kumar, who has been in the force for over 33 years.
The campaign, which is the brainchild of the DGP, aims to rehabilitate these children by enrolling them in government schools. More than 4,000 child beggars in the age group of 5 to 15 years have been identified in the hill province, the DGP and his anti-trafficking unit team have rescued more than half of them from begging in the last five years, he said. says Of these, 1,700 children are currently in school – learning, playing and envisioning a better future.
For a better tomorrow
“Last year, the police recruited 19 children in the age group of 6 to 11 years. They were begging or picking up garbage or selling balloons for money. These kids – Neha, Meena, Akash, Karan – are dedicated to their studies more than any regular kids here. They have a past, are young but hungry for education,” says Akash’s teacher Indu Jyoti.
‘Such children get a good environment in school. They are learning subtraction, multiplication, addition, counting, and learning tables. Thanks to the efforts of the police, these children will be able to work for a better future,” she added.
How challenging is it to adapt these children to the school environment with regular children? “Since these are young children, it is not too difficult to teach them. In fact, their absorbing power is good,” says Jyoti.
Giving the example of Class II student Neha, the teacher says, “Anything you teach her once, she will remember it, be it maths or English. She is a very intelligent and bright girl.”
However, teaching money-hungry, or drug-addicted children is a bit more challenging, she says. “Even teaching them the basics is difficult, even though we spend extra hours getting them comfortable in the school environment.”
According to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, 14 percent of the total beggars in the country are children. It is estimated that more than three lakh children across India are forced to beg, through addiction to drugs, threats of violence and actual beatings.
In 99 percent of cases, “we found that parents forced children to beg because the children did not want to work. A child earns 500 rupees daily by begging. This comes to around Rs 15,000 per month. Daily wage earners also earn less. So parents become passive and make their children beg”, explains Kumar.
Therefore, sustainability is complicated.
Looking for a solution
“Such children are easy to identify. Recruiting and keeping them in schools is a challenge. Too often, children drop out of the schools we enroll them in. Parents forcibly remove them from school. So we have to keep trying. By regular follow-ups and counseling parents, we motivate them to work. In the initial phase, 50 percent would drop out, now it has come down to 20 percent,” says the DGP.
“Forcing children to beg is a crime, and parents can be jailed for this. However, we try to counsel them because if we send them to jail, the innocent child will lose their caretaker,” says the lDGP. “But that doesn’t mean they can get away with repeated crimes.”
Since stability is a challenge, police counsel parents and encourage them to act. Apart from that, they also provide means for earning a living. For example, Asha, a mother of five, was given a sewing machine eight months ago.
“My husband died four years ago. It was difficult for me to support my children in their studies. Now, with this income, I am able to take care of my five children, four daughters and one son, and save up to Rs 2,000,’ says the 30-year-old.
“My Chand (9 years) and Bhishan (7 years) joined the school this year. They were given clothes, books, shoes and water bottles. They (police) did not take a single penny from us. Earlier, they used to wander here and there but now they go to school regularly,” said the mother, who goes home to cook lunch for her children as soon as the school bell rings.
With the help of more than 100 policemen of the anti-trafficking unit of the government, the DGP has been conducting awareness campaigns including projects. Corner play (Road plays).
“We have at least five policemen actively engaged in this campaign in thirteen districts of the state. Sometimes our police personnel take time out to teach these children to make them comfortable while attending school. Many times children run away from school because they find it difficult to adapt to the environment,” says Kumar.
“We review the progress of the campaign and focus on the work for two months in January and February, the period before admissions are announced in April. It takes us about two months to identify such children, counsel them and their parents and enroll them in government schools,” says the 59-year-old DGP. .
In this campaign, children have been made aware to fulfill their duties by giving them education without giving them alms. “The police don’t do this alone. Citizen involvement by the police can make this possible. People came forward and gave books and clothes to the children. As we do not believe in opening a donation account, people donate directly to the child. We don’t provide any financial support,” says Kumar.
“It is a great satisfaction to see these children go to school. In the next phase, we are trying to track down these talented children and support their higher education,” concludes the DGP.
The work of the DGP was also highlighted in a book titled 2022 Best Practices in Smart Policing – A book of good work done by police and other police organizations of various states across the country.
Edited by Divya Sethu.