COIMBATORE: City residents have raised concerns over a group of women carrying children who engage in begging in busy localities. Recently, Kuniyamuthur residents caught a group of migrant women engaged in begging with children.
When questioned, the group attempted to flee. Suspicious locals alerted the police and handed them over. Videos of the incident have been doing the rounds on social media, and many have asked police and authorities to take stringent action against them, suspecting that the children may have been kidnapped by them for begging.
Ibrahim Raja, a resident of Kuniyamuthur in the city, said that they were witnessing such groups wandering in the Kuniyamuthur locality for the last few months.
"Two days ago, residents and youngsters of Thirumoorthi Nagar in Kuniyamuthur caught a gang of seven women carrying children aged below five, begging. We had questioned them about where their native was and where they were staying in Coimbatore, but they didn't know Tamil and only spoke Hindi and Marathi. After we questioned, they started to move out of the area. But we surrounded them because we feared the children could have been kidnapped. Immediately, we alerted the Kuniyamuthur police, who then reached the spot and held an investigation. Police then took the gang for investigation," said Ibrahim Raja.
Kuniyamuthur police inspector S Kannaiyan said about eight women were found begging in Kuniyamuthur and Kovaipudur areas with children. Four boys and three girls were rescued by the Anti Human Trafficking Unit (AHTU) team and the Pink Patrol of the city police, with the assistance of Child Welfare Committee members.
Following the investigation, the women, along with their children, were safely sent back to their native state in Maharashtra with the assistance of the Child Welfare Committee and Childline. They were provided food and a train ticket to reach their native, the police officer said.
Social activists from the city recently raised concerns about the growing menace of beggary. They said that this population is usually witnessed in busy commercial locations like Town Hall, RG Street, Gandhipuram and RS Puram.
When asked, a senior police officer from the city police said they had issued instructions to all police stations to monitor such incidents. "The station house officers are instructed to investigate their native and the relationship with the children. They have been asked to send them back to their native," said the senior officer.