CHARGES OF THE ‘BEGGAR BRIGADE’

They are of all ages - young women, old men, girls and boys. With palms stretched out and eternal whine, dogging at footsteps or sliding up to the vehicle at every nook or junction is the ‘Beggar Brigade’.

Kochi, is supposed to be ‘beggar-free’, according to an outdated survey of the City Corporation of Cochin. But today, the ‘beggar-free’ Kochi is reeling under the beggar mafia. In fact Kochi is a ‘Mecca’ for beggars.

Once upon a time, beggars were said to amass wealth, exploiting the people’s charitable impulse and go back home to marry off a daughter or purchase a house. But the scenario has changed. Begging has become systematic and professional. The wiles they practice range from flesh trade and drugs to theft and pick - pocketing. They are no longer their own persons. There is a ‘Mafia’ that controls beggars. They house  and feed them in exchange for their takings. The mafia decides their location, their routes, the number to be posted in front of a church or a temple, a school or a traffic junction. Depending on their performance they are even eligible for transfer.

The boys and girls are given monetary targets. If they are not able to collect the fixed amount, they are subjected to stringent punishment, an ordeal that terrorizes the children beggars. Sometimes, they are forced to resort to other means to get the target amount, which of course includes selling themselves. Children of both sexes double as beggars by day and sex workers at nights.

Flooded in the city, wrapped in rags with grimy faces, these children can be quite offensive as well. They can transmute themselves to abuse you, if you do not donate liberally. They may even damage your car with a blade or nail if they are displeased.

The mafia also trains the children to be skilled pickpockets. They cut a vanity bag or wallet with utmost ease and silence. They dexterously break into homes and steal. [Being small it is easy to get in, through small windows to open the door to let in the back-up] they are also made to be drug users and peddlers.

The metro is slowly yielding to yielding to criminals. Pick pocketing, drug trafficking and even child prostitution is mushrooming. Down the lane, the beggar mafia will be on the increase in the metro, for the Malayali is known to have a soft corner for the beggars.

 After all whose heartstrings doesn’t wring with a doleful look. 

Achu Kurien Ninan