Hyderabad: When a few citizens tried to shift a bruised woman begging on the pavements near Jubilee Hills to a destitute home, it took a long time and help from the police before the woman could be shifted.
The reason: A young man claiming to be the woman’s son said that he picked her up from the spot every night.
After intervention by the authorities, the man agreed to send the woman to the home and while she was being taken in an auto, he ran off and couldn’t be caught.
“It was clearly a case of the begging mafia trapping that woman. In most of the cases, we observe people for at least three days to find out if it is a case of a destitute person being trapped by the mafia or whether he or she is a mentally ill person etc.,” said, George Rakesh Babu, who runs a destitute home in Alwal.
Though an official from the police department said that the organised begging mafia had been curbed in the city, the patterns studied by activists working on the issue and people running destitute homes suggest something else.
“At all major junctions like Paradise, Masab Tank, Patny, one will find people trying to gain sympathy using kids. A few years ago, it was proposed that DNA tests should be performed when beggars carry kids with them. However, that order from the Labour Department got neglected,” said Rajesh Azaad, an activist working on the issue.
Recently, GHMC sent a proposal to the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) to provide rehabilitation and resettlement to destitute women and children. Officials said there hasn’t been an update yet on the same. The police will take up the programme.
