Wednesday, 22 November 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The director general of police Ashok Kumar said that people who give alms to children are actually pushing them into beggary and a bleak future. He said this in a programme organised at Police Line in Dehradun on Tuesday to raise awareness among people about Operation Mukti and how they can help child beggars. He said that this campaign was started in 2017 and since then, a total of 3,603 child beggars have been rescued and are getting school education. He asserted that people should support children, especially child beggars by taking responsibility and directing them towards education to make them independent rather than giving them some money which does no good to them in the long run. Kumar said that the main objective of the campaign is to effectively prevent beggary, child labour, crimes against children and to make the public aware of not giving alms to children and motivate them to get an education and for their rehabilitation as per the rules. He said that the campaign has two prominent themes which are “don’t give alms, give education” and “support to educate a child”. He said that the campaign is mainly run at such places in each district where the child beggary is observed at the maximum. He said that four police teams including the Anti Human Trafficking Force (AHTF) have been dedicatedly working in Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital where the number of child beggars is considered more than in other districts. He said that the teams work quite meticulously to mark child beggars and get the information of their families to know which children can be enrolled in the schools. To ensure they get an education, the police teams interact with their parents and provide them as well as the children with counselling. The police also work to get the parents employment opportunities to ensure they do not return to beggary again. He said that if children are found involved in begging again, police take legal action against their parents. If the police doubt whether a certain child is actually the child of the parent, a DNA test is done and then further action is taken accordingly.
