DNA Tests To Bust 'Begging Rackets' In Maharashtra

Not many pay attention to a woman who is seen begging, holding a kid with a running nose or the one who is half asleep in her arms on the roadside or at a traffic junction. 

Is the child her own or stolen from some hapless couple? The women and child development department of Maharastra government is working towards implementing a programme whereby a DNA test would be conducted to identify the real parents of the child, if it is a case of child trafficking. 

If this comes into effect, the state would be a pioneer in uniting missing children with their parents by using the DNA test method. 

“Yes, we are contemplating a plan to do DNA tests of children found with women begging on the streets. We have come across instances where some of these kids were found to be victims of human trafficking and are forced into begging,” Minister of State for Women and Child Development Department Vidya Thakur said. 

“Most of the times, we see such children asleep in the arms of a woman with the children barely resembling the woman. This raises suspicion,” the minister added. 

Thakur said the state government’s plan would take some time to be chalked out in detail before it is presented for a final Cabinet nod. 
The minister said the government will also design a special website wherein the database of such children would be stored. 

“After doing the DNA test result, if we find that a child does not belong to a particular beggar woman then we will take action. The child will, meanwhile, be sent to the rehabilitation centre. The government has found that children found begging are either hired or are part of a criminal chain that uses kids for begging,” Thakur said. 

She said the next step for the government would be to reunite such children with their biological parents. 

“Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed concerns about human trafficking and, therefore, we have planned to come up with this programme. The results of the test and other details would be put online for anyone to access, especially parents of missing children. This would help them in tracing their children,” she added. 

While there is no clear census on the number of street children in the city at present, a survey by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) had put the number of children on the city’s streets at close to 40,000.