A Farewell to Alms

Hyderabad decides to run DNA tests on ‘parents’ who claim child beggars from juvenile homes

HYDERABAD ~ For years, the city administration of Hyderabad has been trying to stop children from begging by ordering the police to catch and put them in juvenile homes. But within 24 hours of a round-up, adults claiming to be their parents would get the children freed. Almost immediately, the child beggars would be back at the same junction asking for alms.

To put a stop to this, Andhra Pradesh Labour Commissioner B Ramanjaneyulu has hit upon a novel idea—DNA tests on anyone claiming parenthood of child beggars. It is common knowledge that most of these children are being used by an organised mafia. They go out begging under the eye of their minders. And it is these minders who reportedly turn up at police stations pretending to be the children’s parents.

Conservative estimates put the number of women and children begging at street junctions of Hyderabad at close to a thousand. “We have noticed that whenever these children are caught by the police, women, and sometimes men, claiming to be their parents spin out stories about how poor they are and promise not to send their children to beg once released. These tales often move even the hardest of policemen. But within hours of letting them go, we see the same set of kids back on the streets begging,” says Ramanjaneyulu.

It has now been announced that all such claimants will have to undergo DNA tests to determine the truth. Ramanjaneyulu has decided to rope in the Hyderabad-based Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics for the job. This way, the administration feels, the child beggar racket could finally be curbed. These children, in the meantime, will be admitted to schools, and the older ones will also be put through vocational training.

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Anil Budur Lulla