Vibha Verma
A working woman was taken aback when she saw that a middle-aged woman beggar, whom she had given Rs 100 just minutes ago in the Panjim market was shopping in expensive stores with her entire clan.
“I pitied her situation. She looked so much in need of money. She has been seeking alms in the market for so many weeks. Today, I thought to given her Rs 100 and this is what I saw,” was the reaction of the shocked girl.
This is just one of many such instances one comes across. There are many more who is a part of an organized begging racket. While there are kingpins who run the racket, fearlessly; there are other sections of beggars who descend in Goa during the tourist season and go back with a good earning. They consider Goa like Dubai.
Normally, there is a child and a mother. The mother many times sits with a child who is – strangely – mostly very quiet or sometimes bawling continuously.
The child harasses you for money. In case you ask them where they live or offer them food, they will not sit and eat, but take it back to the ‘mother.’
They seem everywhere; mostly wearing dirty clothes. And can be differentiated from local beggars.
MODUS OPERANDI
The dark world of begging also has darker stories of how underage children are either smuggled or rented out from the bordering Karnataka to beg on the streets of Goa’s major cities.
There are three structures followed:
Women bringing children, mostly below 12 years of age to Goa – away from their real parents. Karnataka’s poverty ridden remote places are good hunting grounds for the gangs working in this business, who transport them here.
The other form is wherein entire clan descends in Goa. The children beg while the parents are busy in the business of ragpicking or dealing with scraps. These children are taught the manner in which they have to seek alms from Indians and foreigners. Though, they are deprived of education, they speak fluent basic foreign languages.
A kingpin or middle-man picks up a bunch of ‘beggars’ from specific locations and drops them at a certain place from where they are dropped at their assigned locations. These groups of beggars are not allowed to cross a certain line. The ‘operational’ zones are decided amongst the lobbies, who work as a begging mafia in the State.
