INDORE: A plot of land, a two-storeyed house, a motorcycle, a smartphone worth Rs 20,000 and a neat Rs 2.5 lakh in six weeks. This is what a woman, Indra Bai, made by making her children beg in Indore, officials said after she was taken into custody.
Indra, a repeat offender, was booked for begging and forcing her children into the crime and sent to jail on remand on Monday. One of her daughters has been put in the care of an NGO. “Rather than starving, we chose to beg. It is better than stealing,” Indra Bai argued with volunteers of NGO Sanstha Pravesh when she and her seven-year-old daughter were being taken off the streets.
The NGO, which is working with Indore Municipal Corporation to rehabilitate beggars, has been collecting data on around 7,000 beggars, 50% of them children, from 38 major squares of Indore. “A rough estimate says that collectively they make over Rs 20 crore annually,” NGO volunteer Rupali Jain told TOI.
Apart from the seven-year-old, Indra has four other children aged 10, 8, 3 and 2. She would place the older kids strategically at the busy Luv Kush Square in Indore, from where roads branch off towards Ujjain, home to Mahakal temple. Indra told cops she chose the crossing as it was a transit point for Ujjain. Pilgrims on their way to offer prayers were unlikely to shoo away children and women seeking alms. Those on the way back, even less so. She said her earnings shot up after the construction of Mahakal Lok. The footfall of devotees was around 2,500 per day before Mahakal Lok was built, and is now 1.75 lakh a day, said officials.
Indra’s money run was cut short on Feb 9 when she was caught begging with her daughter. Her husband and the two older children fled. Officials found Rs 19,600 on her and Rs 600 with the girl. Indra revealed she had made Rs 2.5 lakh in the 45 days prior to her arrest. She also said she owns a two-storeyed house and agricultural land near Kota in Rajasthan, uses a good smartphone and her husband rides around on a motorcycle. All from begging.
Indra owns a two-storeyed house and a plot of land near Rajasthan’s Kota, uses a good smartphone and her husband rides around on a motorcycle
Indra, a repeat offender, was booked for begging and forcing her children into the crime and sent to jail on remand on Monday. One of her daughters has been put in the care of an NGO. “Rather than starving, we chose to beg. It is better than stealing,” Indra Bai argued with volunteers of NGO Sanstha Pravesh when she and her seven-year-old daughter were being taken off the streets.
The NGO, which is working with Indore Municipal Corporation to rehabilitate beggars, has been collecting data on around 7,000 beggars, 50% of them children, from 38 major squares of Indore. “A rough estimate says that collectively they make over Rs 20 crore annually,” NGO volunteer Rupali Jain told TOI.
Apart from the seven-year-old, Indra has four other children aged 10, 8, 3 and 2. She would place the older kids strategically at the busy Luv Kush Square in Indore, from where roads branch off towards Ujjain, home to Mahakal temple. Indra told cops she chose the crossing as it was a transit point for Ujjain. Pilgrims on their way to offer prayers were unlikely to shoo away children and women seeking alms. Those on the way back, even less so. She said her earnings shot up after the construction of Mahakal Lok. The footfall of devotees was around 2,500 per day before Mahakal Lok was built, and is now 1.75 lakh a day, said officials.
Indra’s money run was cut short on Feb 9 when she was caught begging with her daughter. Her husband and the two older children fled. Officials found Rs 19,600 on her and Rs 600 with the girl. Indra revealed she had made Rs 2.5 lakh in the 45 days prior to her arrest. She also said she owns a two-storeyed house and agricultural land near Kota in Rajasthan, uses a good smartphone and her husband rides around on a motorcycle. All from begging.
Indra owns a two-storeyed house and a plot of land near Rajasthan’s Kota, uses a good smartphone and her husband rides around on a motorcycle
