Bengaluru Police turn blind eye to child begging

BENGALURU: The city police, who had cracked down on those trafficking children and forcing them into beggary last year, seem to have gone slow on the drive. This year, the police have not filed a single case related to child beggary.

After the ‘Operation Rakshane’ and ‘Operation Smile’, in which kidnapped children were rescued, the police might have believed that they had put an end to the menace. But there has been a rampant increase in child beggary in the city over the last year. With the police not acting against the mafia behind the menace, the issue is not sufficiently addressed by the authorities. It is common to see a number of children begging at Metro stations, railway stations, temples, traffic junctions, tourist places and movie theatres across the city, child rights experts said.

Additional Commissioner of Police (West) Malini Krishnamoorthy told Deccan Chronicle that she has been following up on the drive and has directed her subordinate officers to look into the issue.

Anita Kanaiya, CEO, The Freedom Project India – which deals with human trafficking, said, “The children are forced to sell merchandise, because they know that they will be caught if they beg. But children selling goods is also a crime.”