Uttarakhand police campaign rescues child beggars, enrols them to schools

Operation Mukti: In a fortnight, 200 children have been enrolled to various schools by Uttarakhand police in Haridwar.

Ten-year-old Kumari Lata used to beg at Ganga ghats during festive bathes in Haridwar town, but now will be studying in a school, thanks to Operation Mukti, a statewide drive started by the Uttarakhand police.

Rescued children being enrolled in a school in Haridwar.(HT Photo)

Under the drive, police personnel are rescuing child beggars from key locations in the town such as Ganga ghats, temples and railway station and enrolling them to schools.

In a fortnight, 200 children have been enrolled to various schools in the town by the police with support from various socio-educational organisations, said officials.

Rishi Bal Vidyalya, Nirdhan Niektan, Khadkhadi, has alone accommodated 63 child beggars. Divya Sewa Prem Mission, another charitable organisation, has enrolled 57 such underprivileged children. Similarly, 61 rescued child beggars from Piran Kaliyar area and 17 from Tibdii cluster has been admitted at Primary School Piran Kaliyar and Primary School Chandracharya square respectively.

Leading the police drive in Haridwar, superintendent of city police, Kamlesh Upadhyay said that the child beggars, along with their parents, are being motivated and made aware of the need of education leaving behind begging.

“It’s not as easy as it appears to, as these underprivileged children hail from very poor background and their parents are either labourers or themselves involved in begging. We have to make them aware, so that they don’t take back their children from schools and realise the ill effects of putting them into begging as positives of school education transforms their children,” Upadhyay said. “We have set a target of 500 child beggars to get enrolled in schools this time with October 31 deadline set for this year’s drive,” she added.

Circle City officer Abhay Singh said he is also visiting slum clusters, schools; religious and social organisation office bearers to ensure that maximum children get enrolled to schools and leave the dark aspects of begging.

Mahamandaleshwar Harichetanand Maharaj, lauding the police effort, said that children are viewed as gift of the God, but when their hands open for begging, it’s a curse for humanity, but when the same hands take books in them it’s a blessing for all of us.

City president of traders’ union, Sunil Sethi, along with several other traders, are also contributing to the police drive with students of Shravan Nath Muth Jawahar Lal Nehru College, led by principal Dr Sunil Kumar Batra, generating awareness about child begging through street skits and pamphlet distribution.

Child activist Vishwas Saxena, who runs an NGO under name Swami Narayan Sewa Mission Society, said, “Child begging is a blot on our developmental oriented society and when we are reaching Moon and Mars we are getting distanced from these very underprivileged children.”

“People should instead of donating to the begging children should donate to charity-educational institutions instead, which provide them a better life by providing them education, knowledge and self confidence that they can stand own their own feet rather than relying on opening their hands (begging).”

RTI activist JP Baduni said that a good message from Haridwar is being given to the whole world that child beggars are being transformed into educated ones and suggested that on the banks of Ganga many a rescued children can also be educated as Sanskrit scholars so that they can earn their livelihood at many an ashrams, monasteries and temples.