Indore Woman Earns Rs 2.5 Lakh In 45 Days By Forcing Children To Beg (Representative image: Pixabay)

Indra Bai, a 40-year-old woman from Madhya Pradesh earned Rs. 2.5 lakh in 45 days by forcing three of her children to beg on the streets of Indore.

An NGO reports that the woman”s family is part of a group of around 150 people involved in begging in the city, and they owns land and a two-storied house in Rajasthan.

“The woman, Indra Bai, was recently found begging at the Luv-Kush intersection on the Indore-Ujjain road. We found cash to the tune of ₹ 19,200 in her possession,” Rupali Jain, president of PRAWES told PTI. PRAWES is an organisation associating with the district administration to rescue and rehabilitate beggars.

The woman compelled, three of her five children to beg on the streets, including her eight-year-old daughter.

Rupali Jain said that though her team was able to place the girl children under the care of the Child Welfare Committee, the woman”s two sons fled after seeing them. They were aged nine and 10 years, and her remaining children were in Rajasthan, Rupali Jain added.

Indira informed them that she earned Rs. 2.5 lakh in the last 45 days, and from it, she had sent Rs 1 lakh to her in-laws, deposited Rs 50,000 in a bank account, and invested Rs 50,000 in fixed deposit schemes. Besides, Rupali Jain said that Indra”s husband had purchased a two-wheeler in her name, and they would roam around the city on the motorcycle.

When she got caught, Indra reportedly had an argument with a woman NGO worker. Indra was arrested under section 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of the cognisable offence) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Sub-inspector Ishwarchandra Rathod, Banganga police station said.

She was produced before an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) court, which remanded her judicial custody, Police official added. It was on early this month, Indore district administration decided to relaunch an intensive drive to to save those involved begging and help Indore become ‘beggar-free city”, Times of India reports.

The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched a pilot project to execute 10 major cities in the country, including Indore, beggar-free. The city has been selected in the central government’s ‘SMILE-75’ initiative that meant to mark 75 years of Independence.

(With inputs from PTI)