Woman earns Rs 2.5 lakh in 45 days by forcing children to beg

Indore: A 40-year-old woman has managed to earn Rs 2.5 lakh in just 45 days by forcing her eight-year-old daughter and two sons to beg on the streets of Indore. The woman’s family, who are part of a group of around 150 people involved in begging in the city, owned land and a two-storey house in Rajasthan, an NGO has claimed.

“The woman, Indra Bai, was recently found begging at the Luv-Kush intersection on the Indore-Ujjain road. We found cash to the tune of Rs 19,200 in her possession,” Rupali Jain, president of Pravesh, an organisation working with the administration to make Indore a beggar-free city, told PTI on Tuesday.

The mother of five had forced three of her children, including her eight-year-old daughter, to beg on the city streets.

While the girl was placed under the care of the Child Welfare Committee, the woman’s sons, aged nine and 10 years, fled after seeing her team, Jain said, adding that her remaining children were in Rajasthan.

Indra has informed that she earned Rs 2.5 lakh in alms in the last 45 days, of which she had sent Rs 1 lakh to her in-laws, deposited Rs 50,000 in a bank account, and invested Rs 50,000 in fixed deposit schemes (FDs), she said.

The woman’s family also owned land and a two-storey house in Rajasthan, Jain said. “Indra’s husband had purchased a motorcycle in her name, and the couple would roam around the city on the two-wheeler,” she said.

After being caught, Indra allegedly had an altercation with a woman NGO worker, and she was arrested under section 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of the cognisable offence) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), sub-inspector Ishwarchandra Rathod of Banganga police station said.

The woman was produced before an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) court, which remanded her judicial custody, he said. The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched a pilot project to make 10 cities, including Indore, beggar-free.

Indore District Magistrate Ashish Singh said, “We have set a target to rescue children forced to beg in the city. So far, 10 children have been rescued and sent to the government-run children’s home.” Action is also being taken against gangs involved in forcing children to beg, he said.