Ironically enough, while the Central Government has incorporated Dehradun in its most anticipated ‘smart city’ plan some of the basic social issues remain unaddressed here. Take for instance, the surge in the number of children begging at the traffic lights and the important junctions of the city. Children below the age of five begging at the red signals is a common sight here everyday. People have generally turned indifferent towards them. They do pay them alms, but they are hardly curious to know why those kids who should be studying and playing are begging in the streets.
Some of such beggars said they would not work even if they were given works to earn living. “I don’t want to work. Why should I work when I am getting sufficient money through beggingIJ” Mamta who begs outside Astley Hall claimed.Some of the poor parents who work for their daily bread are learnt to be sending their children to beg because they are unable to earn sufficient income to arrange two square meals a day for them.
Asked where they live, some of the kids found begging said that they lived in slums near Parade Ground and ISBT. Some of them come from Govindgarh as well.“My mother works as a sweeper and my father is no more which is why I ask people for money and help,” seven-year-old Tanveer from Govindgarh said.Some of them ask help in the name of meeting the school fees. They said they do not have enough money to go to schools. They tend to beg or wash cars.Such a kid said he begged on weekends as he did not have enough money to buy books and stationery.