Social Welfare Minister Srinivas Poojary on Friday informed the Legislative Council that the issue of woman-child beggars at traffic signals in Bengaluru has been brought down by 90%.
He said that an estimated 600 such beggars had been identified and 90% of them have been brought under control. “It has been found that the children carried by beggars were in many cases not their own, but taken on ‘rent.’ The children were also drugged,” the Minister said in reply to a question from BJP member A. Deve Gowda.
He also said that the department was in touch with the Law Ministry to handle beggars below the age of 16.
