9 November 2020
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A few months back there was a report in a Bengali daily that during COVID-19, the demand for young children of age 6-12 years has sharply increased in the begging market of India.
Women with baby in lap asking for money in traffic signals or public places is a most common sight in all major cities. These children are being hired by beggar mafias either for the whole day or for some hours at different price rates ranging from Rs. 50 to Rs. 500. Due to limited transport facilities and restricted movement of the suppliers, there is a dearth of small babies for the past six months. To supplement the gap, the ‘industry’ is now depending on young children.
The pandemic and the lockdown have badly affected country’s economic and labour market situation. As a result, the large, medium or small, almost every industry witnessed revenue losses, with consequent increase in the incidence of job losses. The situation is not very different for the begging industry. Like various other business models, Begging in India is a multi-million-dollar industry, which although complex in nature, is a very organised business, having children and babies as the most preferred employees of the industry.
Since disabled child beggars get more money, children with disabilities are especially vulnerable to being forced into begging. Quite often, the able-bodied children are physically maimed in order to increase the amount of money they can earn as beggars. A study reported a case of two doctors working in a government hospital in India having been paid US$200 for every amputation they performed on a healthy child.
As per Census 2011, India has 3.72 lakh child beggars below 14 years of age. Out of them, 1.97 lakh are boys, and 1.74 lakhs are girls. Many of them are forced into the profession. They are drugged, beaten up, threatened and made to beg every day. According to the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) data, on an average, 174 children go missing every day and whereabouts of more than 50 per cent of them remain unknown.
This number has gone up during the pandemic, because of growing unemployment, immigration from rural areas, acute poverty etc. Thus, while some parents are scared to let their children go out of their homes; for many others, there is no other option for survival but letting their children take to begging. A World Vision study reported that worldwide eight million children have been forced into begging and child labour as a consequence of the outbreak. The report mentioned that 110 million children are facing hunger, and that 85 million households across Asia have little or no food stocks, which will push more children into begging.
The situation of child beggars in India was awful in the lockdown period as there was no traffic on roads to ask money for. In the absence of their daily earning, children were either queueing up for food near shelter homes and quarantine facilities or counting on the mercy of police, NGOs or complete strangers. Ironically, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) urges NGOs and volunteers to stop feeding street children and asks them to take children to shelters. This is despite a media report about the CHILDLINE receiving 4.6 lakh calls between April and May, out of which over 90% were for food.
A common observation against the beggars seems to be: Why can’t they work instead of begging? However, knowing that begging is a violation of child rights, we hardly question: why children are begging instead of being in school? Why t is it difficult to put a stop once and for all to this perennial activity?
As per the ILO Convention (No. 29), forced or compulsory labour defines as “work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily.” Therefore, forced child begging falls into the category of child labour.
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 is there for protecting children through legal frameworks and social provisions. As per Section 76 of the Act, whoever employs or uses any child for the purpose of begging or causes any child to beg shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years and shall also be liable to a fine of one lakh rupees. The Act also defines a child who begs as ‘in need of care and protection’. Therefore, children who are found begging are liable to be sent before a child welfare committee, and if required to children’s homes. Governments should offer rehabilitative care appropriate to each child’s needs, including education, healthcare, help with drug de-addiction and, where possible help with repatriation back to their families and communities.
Child Protection Service (CPS) (earlier, Integrated Child Protection Service-ICPS) by Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD)has been in operation for many years for providing a safe and secure environment for children in need of care and protection including those children who are found begging. However, in the absence of adequate funding in the scheme, the whole process of rehabilitating the child beggars has never been implemented properly. The anti-human trafficking units are also under-resourced. Moreover, lack of data on child trafficking and child beggars makes it difficult to run targeted interventions. COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of children when deprived of basic rights. As an immediate step, governments must identify the children gripped into the menace of begging, rescue them, and make efforts for their rehabilitation in a safe and caring environment.
Besides strengthening the CPS, government should prioritise investment in affordable and accessible quality education, and providing nutritious food. This would help prevent many children from entering or being forced into begging and other forms of exploitation in the first place.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author, and don’t necessarily reflect the position of CBGA. You can reach Protiva Kundu at protiva@cbgaindia.org.