Unhappy with the government’s apathy towards rehabilitating child beggars in the city, the Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the government of Maharashtra to come out with a comprehensive policy for rehabilitation of these children.
A division bench headed by Justice Abhay S. Oka directed the government to refer to a Census of street children conducted in 2013 by Professor Asha Mukundan from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and various other NGOs. According to the TISS report, there are more than 37,000 child beggars in Mumbai alone, who qualify for “Child in need of Care and Protection” of the Juvenile Justice Act.
“Very little has been done by the state till today for child beggars,” observed the bench. It also expressed concern over rising number of child beggars in the city and asked the government to rescue these children, and provide them facilities for adequate accommodation and education as they too come under the ambit of Right to Education (RTE).
The bench was hearing suo moto public interest litigation (PIL), stating that there is an urgent need for the state to address this problem. The petition demanded that the government find out how many children have taken to begging, either forcibly or voluntarily. The PIL stated that children are the future of the country and should be given an education. It is the duty of the state to ensure that children don’t have to beg under any circumstances. “The government has a responsibility to take care of destitute children, who either do not have parents or are forced by their elders to take to begging to earn a living,” said the petition.
In the past, the high court had asked the government to find out the number of children begging on city streets and how many of them are orphans and how many have parents or guardians.
