Bangalore to Become Child-Beggar-Free City
Bangalore to Become Child-Beggar-Free City
The Hindu
Bangalore, Dec 11: The Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has proposed to convene a convergence meeting with various State departments to chalk out measures to make Bangalore a child-beggar-free city.
Chairperson of the Commission Neena P. Naik will soon meet the Women and Child Welfare Minister P.M. Narendraswamy and submit a proposal in this regard. “We want to adopt a holistic approach to curb child begging in the city involving all departments involved in child welfare such as the Women and Child Welfare, Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and City Police. This will ensure that there are more care and protection programmes for child beggars,” Ms. Naik told The Hindu on Thursday on the sidelines of an awareness programme organised by Childline to mark World Human Rights Day in the city.
She said boys aged below 16 and girls aged below 18, who are involved in begging, do not come under the purview of the Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975. “Although they are covered under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, there is limited scope for their rehabilitation. While the BBMP collects beggary cess from citizens as part of property tax, it is used only for the welfare of adult beggars. We will discuss how best we can involve the BBMP and other departments for better care and protection of child beggars,” Ms. Naik said.
Earlier, Ms. Naik inaugurated the awareness programme organised to mark Human Rights Day. She was witness to a signature campaign to protect child rights as part of the programme.
She explained that Childline (1098) is a 24-hour free phone emergency outreach service for children in need of care and protection and aims to rehabilitate children. A human chain and a cultural programme, including a street play, were staged to mark the day.
Comment on this article
LN Gopinath, Bangalore
Sat, Feb 05 2011Just tried reaching 1098 to report a thing that I witnessed, but no one is answering the phone. Yesterday at Ramamurthy Nagar over-bridge's signal, I witnessed a Rajasthani looking woman with an infant I got worried about such kids being exploited. Whom can they lookup for, if authorities are not having any plans for these kids' rescue. Always have been hearing India is still improving and over time things would be better. I think collective local imrpovement leads to country's betterment.
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Krishna, Bangalore
Tue, Feb 23 2010Bangalore should indeed be made "Beggar free" and not just child beggar free.
The only way out is by -
1. Educating the public to avoid paying no matter how bad they look or how hard they try.
2. Strictly preventing begging/hawking at traffic signals
3. Arrested ones should not be given bail.. they should be forced into the rehabilitation center.
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Dsa.M, Mangalore
Fri, Dec 11 2009If beggars parents are unable to feed them, MCC can pick them up and send them to the orphanage.
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Judith L, Mumbai
Fri, Dec 11 2009imprtant news in Mumbai Mirror today regarding sale of babies and infants in begging racket. We bought a 16-day-old baby’, published in Bangalore Mirror on Wednesday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Bangalore North) H S Revanna directed a probe into the incident and take stern action. Sources in the police and government said that this wasn’t a one-off case and that selling of babies was a fairly widespread racket that might have links to the beggary racket in the city"
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SKM, Udupi
Fri, Dec 11 2009Good initiation by authorities in Bangalore ,why this is limited only to Bangalore, implement this to whole state. Also make this as "Beggar Free" rather than only "child beggar free",of course not so easy to phase out , even developed countries (Europe & USA) do have beggars problem. This is similar issue like global warming, manmade issues. But one day we will be beggar free.
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