The brutal ways of the Beggar Mafia have no limits. Their “working logic” is not quite difficult to understand. Why would any common person roll down his car’s window pane on a busy traffic signal and give some money to a beggar who is fairly healthy and brisk? Accordingly, a person under the Mafia’s control is beaten and tortured and usually maimed for life to invoke pity and sympathy from the people, who in turn would give more alms.
A majority of such beggars are children, most of who are kidnapped by the Mafia while they are still infants. The infants are not fed for days at a stretch so as to make them cry uncontrollably. These wailing infants are then kept on sidewalks or pavements with another maimed beggar on their side so that sympathetic passers-by donate generously. Furthermore, due to lack of adequate nourishment, the infants suffer from chronic nutritional deficiencies like Marasmus which lead to stunted growth and deformed bodies. Also, the infants’ skins develop hyper pigmentation due to constant exposure to the scorching sun.
The young children who should be playing in kindergarten or studying in elementary school are made to learn the “ways and nuances” of begging. They are told the “appropriate” and the most “lucrative” places to beg, the kind of people to be approached for begging and are taught the various mannerisms and words to invoke compassion. At the end of the day, they must report back to the Mafia and turn over their day’s alms.
The Mafia also makes sure that the beggar children are addicted to street-life. The common practice among beggars in metropolitans like Bangalore and Mumbai is to drug infants and use them for begging. Slightly older children are also given drugs and intoxicants, permitted to enter places where drugs are sold, incited to beg or borrow and exposed to sedatives. This is one of the major reasons why the rescued beggar children by the NGOs do not respond to rehabilitation therapies. Sadly, they are often more likely to run away and return to the street-life.
In order to sustain their brutal business, the Beggar Mafia do not hesitate to use willing doctors to first invalidate totally healthy limbs and then hacking them off before pushing the victims back on the streets to live off their earnings.
Many rescued beggar children narrate horrific stories about forcible chopping off of limbs. According to certain special investigations by the media, in countries like India, many well qualified doctors are also shamelessly involved in this business and aid the Beggar Mafia. For as little as Rs.10, 000 (about $200), some senior orthopaedic surgeons use their knives to cripple and maim perfectly healthy children and even grown ups. In fact, the methods of amputation are inhuman too. Gangrene is developed in the legs or arms by stitching up the muscles to block blood supply and within two-three days, the chosen limb is chopped off. Due to this increasing menace, there are more than twelve thousand handicapped beggars in New Delhi area alone.
Other methods used by the Beggar Mafia include pouring acid to burn skin and induce pus. In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, one such three-year old child whose left leg from thigh to foot was burnt with acid, oozing pus from the acid burns was found begging in by the roadside. She was eventually rescued with the help of police and is currently under the care of a welfare organisation.
Some other unfortunate young children are “bought” by the Beggar Mafia from relatives or custodians who cannot afford to keep them or simply do not want them. These children are first brutally beaten, burnt and starved for days in order to make them look miserable and then sent to the streets to beg. One such child, a nine-year old boy, was found squirming in pain when a local Beggar Mafia leader poured petrol over him,lightened a match stick and threw it on his body and left him over there.
A majority of such beggars are children, most of who are kidnapped by the Mafia while they are still infants. The infants are not fed for days at a stretch so as to make them cry uncontrollably. These wailing infants are then kept on sidewalks or pavements with another maimed beggar on their side so that sympathetic passers-by donate generously. Furthermore, due to lack of adequate nourishment, the infants suffer from chronic nutritional deficiencies like Marasmus which lead to stunted growth and deformed bodies. Also, the infants’ skins develop hyper pigmentation due to constant exposure to the scorching sun.
The young children who should be playing in kindergarten or studying in elementary school are made to learn the “ways and nuances” of begging. They are told the “appropriate” and the most “lucrative” places to beg, the kind of people to be approached for begging and are taught the various mannerisms and words to invoke compassion. At the end of the day, they must report back to the Mafia and turn over their day’s alms.
The Mafia also makes sure that the beggar children are addicted to street-life. The common practice among beggars in metropolitans like Bangalore and Mumbai is to drug infants and use them for begging. Slightly older children are also given drugs and intoxicants, permitted to enter places where drugs are sold, incited to beg or borrow and exposed to sedatives. This is one of the major reasons why the rescued beggar children by the NGOs do not respond to rehabilitation therapies. Sadly, they are often more likely to run away and return to the street-life.
In order to sustain their brutal business, the Beggar Mafia do not hesitate to use willing doctors to first invalidate totally healthy limbs and then hacking them off before pushing the victims back on the streets to live off their earnings.
Many rescued beggar children narrate horrific stories about forcible chopping off of limbs. According to certain special investigations by the media, in countries like India, many well qualified doctors are also shamelessly involved in this business and aid the Beggar Mafia. For as little as Rs.10, 000 (about $200), some senior orthopaedic surgeons use their knives to cripple and maim perfectly healthy children and even grown ups. In fact, the methods of amputation are inhuman too. Gangrene is developed in the legs or arms by stitching up the muscles to block blood supply and within two-three days, the chosen limb is chopped off. Due to this increasing menace, there are more than twelve thousand handicapped beggars in New Delhi area alone.
Other methods used by the Beggar Mafia include pouring acid to burn skin and induce pus. In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, one such three-year old child whose left leg from thigh to foot was burnt with acid, oozing pus from the acid burns was found begging in by the roadside. She was eventually rescued with the help of police and is currently under the care of a welfare organisation.
Some other unfortunate young children are “bought” by the Beggar Mafia from relatives or custodians who cannot afford to keep them or simply do not want them. These children are first brutally beaten, burnt and starved for days in order to make them look miserable and then sent to the streets to beg. One such child, a nine-year old boy, was found squirming in pain when a local Beggar Mafia leader poured petrol over him,lightened a match stick and threw it on his body and left him over there.
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