TUMAKURU: Driven to desperation, Handijogis, a nomadic community who know nothing but pig rearing, are renting their babies to beggars for a price to eke out a living in Tumakuru district.
According to sources, the Handijogi community rents six-month to two-year-old babies to beggars for Rs 100 for 4-5 hours when the beggars make a killing. These beggars fed sedatives to the children to keep them silent and get alms garnering the sympathy of the public saying they are having a tough time bringing up their kids.
The babies are kept continuously under the hot sun or in extreme cold weather depending on the time of the year. When these beggar women take rest, they hand over the babies to others who continue to use the babies as begging tools. Nomadic communities including Handijogi and Hakki Pikki stay in makeshift tents made of cloth and polythene sheets in Baddihalli near Kyatasandra, Ismail Nagar, Ramajois colony and near Sira Gate area in Tumakuru.
They don’t have any basic facilities including drinking water and electricity. It’s said that Handijogi women refuse to undergo tubectomy operations and most of them have more than two children as they want to exploit the ‘earning potential’ of the babies. When this correspondent visited members of the community, they were tightlipped on their activity.
Asked why the Handijogi community rents babies to beggars, Ramakka, state convenor of the Federation of Nomadic Communities, said the community has lost the opportunity to rear pigs as the municipal corporation is obstructing them. “So a few community members especially those who stay in Gubbi and Sira taluks are forced to beg in Tumakuru City and surrounding areas as they don’t have any source of income nor facilities.”
Radhakrishna M.C., a doctor has filed a complaint with the child welfare department in Tumakuru, asking them on the exploitation of babies belonging to others, who suffer endless hours of torture at the hands of beggars. “I have often noticed babies being used as a begging tool by woman at traffic signals and the KSRTC bus stand in Tumakuru as I have to travel daily to my clinic at Gubbi from Tumakuru. I’m sure the women are not their real mothers, but pose as nursing mothers of the children”, he said.
A woman police officer, who did not want to be named, said that she has noticed such incidents in the city and said a few people are behind the racket. When contacted Vasanti Uppar, who is in-charge child protection officer, child welfare department, said they would take steps to check the relationship of the babies with woman beggars.
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