No School, No Mid-Day Meal, Jhuggi Kids Back to Ragpicking, Begging in Bhopal

Bhopal: The closure of government schools due to the lockdown and subsequent halt to mid-day meals in schools has forced many underprivileged primary and middle school students to turn into rag-picking and begging in Madhya Pradesh’s capital, Bhopal. 

Almost all these children live in jhuggis (shanties) and their parents are either daily wagers or domestic helps. Since the parents also do not have any work during this prolonged lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these families are living in penury. 

The recently imposed 10-day lockdown in Bhopal after reports of massive surge in Covid-19 cases from July 25 to August 3 have added to the woes of these families.

Left with no option but to support their families during the pandemic, these children have returned to rag-picking and begging. Some of the places NewsClick visited are TT Nagar, MP Nagar, Habiganj railway station, Kolar and Sukhi Sewaniya. 

For these children, rag-picking is a bit tougher than begging. While rag-picker children have been making between Rs 120-150 a day, those begging in railway stations, traffic signals and near popular eateries are making a little higher money.

“We have identified 15 children living in the sheds and gleaned them from such activities earlier. But, now invariably all of them are back at it” said Archna Sahay, Director, Aarambh, a child rights non-government organisation (NGO).

In 2019, some city NGOs rescued as many as 175 child beggars and 350 child rag-pickers from the eight spots under the the Khushal Naunihal Initiative of the Bhopal division.

“Many parents endorsed their children’s begging. The Child Welfare Committee has directed that cases be registered against them,” said Sahay, adding that the interest such children were slowly developing toward schooling had suffered, as schools remained shut.

As far as the law is concerned, Section 76 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, prohibits employment of children from begging.

Newsclick visited Sukhi Sewaniya, 15-km away from the main city, on the Bhopal-Vidisha road. There are nearly 400 families in this colony and a majority of these are rag-pickers, beggars, gypsies and daily wagers.

With livelihoods being snatched away due to the prolonged lockdown, the parents of children in these jhuggis, who used to send their kids to the local primary school with the hope of availing them a one-time healthy meal and education, are now “pushing” their children to do rag-picking or begging, alleged the NGO.

“Every penny counts, as scrap prices have crashed from Rs 21 a kg to Rs 14-15 kg after the lockdown,” said Kartik Lodhi, 42 (name changed). For the last couple of months, he has failed to earn enough to feed his five children. Hence, he asked his wife to take his 6-year-old daughter, who was enrolled in class 1 of the primary school last year, for rag-picking. “Even the Rs 20-30 my daughter earns is crucial. Now that the school is shut, she sits idle at home anyway,” said Lodhi.

The primary school, which was established in 2007 in Sukhi Sewaniya, has nearly 132 students from class 1 to 5. Nearly 300 students are enrolled in the middle school. “The attendance was healthy because of the mid-day meal. Most of the students attended class regularly. But after the lockdown was imposed and the schools were shut, students left with no work,” said Anju Chouhan, a social activist in the locality.

“In April, the school administration distributed 2 kg rice to each primary school student as compensation for mid-day meal. Since then, they have got nothing,” claimed Anju, who is working with Bachpan, an NGO.

On May 1, the Madhya Pradesh government ordered door-to-door delivery of mid-day meals to primary and middle school students, and has claimed to have transferred Rs 117 crore in the accounts of 66.27 lakh primary and middle school students’ parents. They also claimed to have delivered doorstep mid-day meal rations to the 56.87 lakh children. However, this did not reach the children of Sukhi Sewaniya, claimed parents and social activists.

“We have been working for more than a decade in the region and our primary focus is to educate and rehabilitate children involved in rag-picking and begging,” said Rajeev Bhargava, founder of Bachpan.

“We persuade parents to send their children to school and in the past four years we have managed to enrol 128 children in schools and monitor their situation,” he said, lamenting that “all our efforts have gone in vain” as these children had returned to begging and salvaging scrap. 

It will be a tough task to bring the children to back school again, Bhargava added. 

Rakhi Raghuwanshi of Uday Samajik Vikas Sansthan, another NGO, said: “We have taken up the issue of children returning to rag-picking and begging with the Bhopal administration. There needs to be a contingency plan for such families during the pandemic.”

However, District Education Officer Nitin Saxena said the administration had not yet come across such cases. “However, we will look into the issue raised and help resolve it.”