CG kids being exploited due to govt’s apathy: Congress

Raipur, December 17, 2011

Condemning the reports of state kids being compelled to beg in Bangalore, the Congress on Saturday held the government responsible for their exploitation. “The incident is horrible and proves that the government is apathetic towards impoverished section,” said PCC president Nandkumar Patel and CLP leader Ravindra Choubey.

They said the children belonged to those families who had migrated in search of jobs. “Proper use of Central funds in MNREGA implementation would have checked migration of Chhattisgarh people to other states and eventually no one would have dared to force kids to beg,” the duo said.

They claimed that majority of the kids found begging in Bangalore hail from scheduled caste community dwelling in Bilaspur and Janjgir. “Now, what happened to the governmental programmes for the SC community? Why it failed to take any initiative to contain them? Perhaps, it’s the government’s acclivity towards corruption which prevented it to take care of the deprived section,” they said.

They said human trafficking of tribal girls was another major issue over which the government had posed mysterious silence. “In 2008, about 3200 girls became victim of human traffickers. These girls belonged to Jashpur, Sarguja and other remote forest villages of the state. The Congress had prominently raised the issue during state Assembly session and had sought permission from the Speaker to produce the list containing names of the victims,” they added.

“In 2011, the number of tribal girls being trafficked had shot up to 8000. Thanks to the government’s indifference that led to continuous exploitation of tribal girls,” they said.