1. “ A dime of hope is all we pray,
Forgotten by humanity we stay.
We're the children of light,
Yet in the darkness we sway. ”
Walking on the streets like ghosts in tattered clothes. Lonely souls with faces that reflect the
hardships they have been through in their lives and eyes that gleam like pearls telling a story we
know nothing about. They are the unnoticed and unattended future of a country that believes
children are a form of god and yet leave them to perish in this cold, cruel world. Every year
more than 60,000 children go missing in India. Some duped, some kidnapped and while others
are simply handed over by their own families out of desperation to sustain themselves. The
children are born to parents who are helpless, and need an extra pair of hands to be able to cater
for them in a dire state! For them, extra hands means extra manpower. What they don't realize
is that they are just adding another mouth to feed in a sea of hunger where millions like them
suffer everyday for a single meal. These deprived children are often taken up by unscrupulous
organized child-mafias and then forced into begging in the streets and alleys, thus becoming
part of a gruesome billion dollar trade.
As portrayed so vividly by the Oscar-winning movie, Slumdog Millionare, these children are
like sheep, herded by wolves that drug, manipulate and dispose them off like objects. And since
disabled children get more money than their healthy counterparts, the owners often increase
their profits by exploiting the bodies. Many such children are maimed - arms and legs
amputated, acid poured over their bodies and eyes gouged out ruthlessly. These mutilations then
act as trophies that they have to showcase to gain more sympathy when they beg. Many child
beggars are addicted to solvents, alcohol and charras (powerful Afghan hashish often laced
with opium). This helps the children to forget where they are, but it also helps the captors to
keep them under control. Children are taught to approach certain kinds of people and use
certain mannerisms, to extract more money; and when the good-willed bystanders out of
sympathy give money directly to them, they unintentionally feed the pockets of the criminals

2. who will go around and use this money to abduct, enslave, rape, torture and maim more
children. Hence completing the circle of poverty where all the money goes to the captors. It's a
tough pill to swallow; to accept that this flourishing form of human trafficking is largely
financed and enabled by good-hearted people who just want to help. If the children are unable
to meet their target for the day they are beaten up, starved and tortured; to further add to the
mutilated form essential for the sympathy of the people and forces them to obey their captors
out of fear. By manipulating these obedient pawns, these criminals make millions off people
who work hard every day to make an honest living living. In this modern-day fairy tale, the
sheep hunt for the wolves who keep them captive.
A reader might ask the question, what are the government and the police doing then? It is
indeed a sad truth that not much can be expected from an Indian police force that runs sting
operations against the poor auto-rickshaw drivers, shamelessly extorting money in the name of
'fines' from the people who merely run the vehicles for their owners (who yet again stay safe
behind the lines). This is not surprising because the ‘business’ is flourishing; as much as £20
million is minted in a year from these activities, enough to bribe these corrupt enforcers of the
law. Such is the state of the law enforcement in the nation that even the children who are taken
off the streets and put in government shelters are easily re-trafficked back into begging.
But with all that said, it is true that when confronted by a child gleaming with eyes full of
sorrows and a future bereft of hopes and happiness, we aren’t heartless enough to turn a blind
eye towards them and many a times end up feeding to that very circle of despair which haunts
them. It's important to understand that though it is imperative to not give them money, it doesn't
mean we have to turn our backs to them.
Donate to honest, responsible NGOs that have taken the initiatives to help these children, and
look for your own creative ways to be kind to these children that won’t encourage the business
or abet human trafficking. Your generosity may define their future, for better or for worse.