Rs 2.5 lakh in 45 days, house, bike: Family earns it all by using kids to beg
Indra Bai has five children, of whom she employed three to beg in Indore. The rest are in Rajasthan, begging on the streets as well
Madhya Pradesh’s Indra Bai owns land and a two-storey house in Rajasthan’s Kota, a bike that Indra and her husband often take out for a ride, a phone worth Rs 20,000, fixed deposits of Rs 50,000, and as much in a savings account. What’s special about that? Well, all of it came from begging on the streets of Indore.
It seems begging on the streets of Indore is a lucrative “profession” because Indra and her three children managed to earn Rs 2.5 lakh in a mere 45 days. However, the unfortunate part in this story is that the 40-year-old woman has been allegedly forcing her sons and daughter to beg, for which she has been arrested.
All kids employed in begging
Indra’s family belongs to a group of around 150 people involved in begging in Indore, according to NGO Pravesh, which works with the administration to make Indore a beggar-free city. Rupali Jain, president of Pravesh, told news agency PTI that they found Indra Bai begging at the Luv-Kush intersection on the Indore-Ujjain road and found cash worth Rs 19,200 in her possession.
Indra has five children, of whom she employed three to beg in Indore. The rest are in Rajasthan, begging on the streets as well. Her eight-year-old daughter has been rescued and placed under the care of the Child Welfare Committee. However, her sons, aged nine and 10, and her husband fled after seeing the Pravesh team, Jain said.
Repeat offender
Of the Rs 2.5 lakh Indra and her children earned in alms in 45 days, Indra said 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 deposits (FDs). “Indra’s husband has bought a motorcycle in her name, and the couple roam around the city on the two-wheeler,” Jain said.
According to a Times of India report, Indra is a repeat offender. “Rather than starving, we chose to beg. It is better than stealing,” Indra reportedly told the volunteers of Pravesh. She would reportedly place the children strategically at the Luv Kush Square, which leads to the celebrated Mahakal temple in Ujjain. Pilgrims are usually kinder to women and children begging for alms.
Woman in custody
Indra was arrested under CrPC Section 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of the cognisable offence), sub-inspector Ishwarchandra Rathod of Banganga police station told PTI. She was produced before an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) court, which remanded her judicial custody, he said.
According to the data with Pravesh, 50 per cent of the beggars in Indore are children. Jain told TOI that according to a rough estimate, the beggars collectively make over Rs 20 crore annually. Indore is among the 10 cities that the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has chosen for a pilot project to make beggar-free.
(With agency inputs)
