On the instructions of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, Smile Project is being implemented by Smart City in Indore district. Under this program, Indore Collector Ashish Singh organized a meeting and in this meeting all the social organizations of Indore district were present.
The main objective of the meeting was to make Indore district beggar free. Indore Collector Ashish Singh told the workers of social organizations present that at present there are about 7000 beggars in Indore district, out of which about 3500 children are doing beggar work at different intersections.
Collector Ashish Singh directed that work will be done in a phased manner to completely remove beggary from Indore and in the first phase, 3500 child beggars will be removed from the intersection and they will be linked to school education. For this work, Collector Ashish Singh has directed Women and Child Development Department, Child Helpline and Social Justice Department were given 15 days' time and directed that within 15 days, all the children present in Indore district who are engaged in begging should be identified and they should be linked to school education.
Apart from this, mental and physical Physically unwell beggars will also be sent to the rehabilitation centre. Collector Ashish Singh said that at present information has been received about four types of beggars, including child beggars, old beggars, traditional beggars and others beggars who beg in form of team of children and adults. They ask for alms from people and come from another city and after begging at a certain time they go to another city.
In the discussion between the collector and the representatives of social organizations, this topic also came up that the main reason for begging is drug addiction. Most of the children and elders, who can easily feed themselves by working hard, have become addicted to intoxication and drugs and due to this they have become incapable of doing any hard work but they daily need money to consume intoxication.
There is a daily need of money to the beggars, hence they roam around the intersection and market asking for money in alms. Collector Ashish Singh has appealed to the citizens of Indore not to provide cash in any way to the children and elders who beg for alms. Hundreds of paan shops are running without permission in every street of Indore city, in the main market and at the main intersection also Cold drink shops are running where anyone can easily get beedi, cigarette, tobacco or gutka. Gogo Paper used for intoxication is easily available.
Social organizations have demanded from the Collector that immediate action should be taken against all such shops running in Indore Municipal Corporation area which are running without permission and in the name of pain shop they selling intixication things harmful especially for children and students without permission and without Municipal Corporation registration at the intersection of Indore city. People buy cigarettes from these shops and are seen smoking in public in front of the shop, as smoking is legally prohibited in public places.
