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Girl, 13, begged to feed blind father

Always eager to study, misfortune befell her when her mother eloped with a man.

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Bal Prafulta, an NGO dealing with child abuse and children’s rights, rescued a 13-year-old girl beggar girl with the help of the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel on Friday.

The girl had taken to begging on outstation trains for the past three months to support her congenitally blind father and two younger brothers, aged nine and seven.

A resident of a slum colony in Kalyan, the girl revealed that her ambition to study had been nipped in the bud by her mother, who eloped with another man three months ago. To support her helpless father and brothers, she resorted to begging.

Her modus operandi consisted of boarding a train to Mumbai CST from Kalyan every day and then hopping on to the Hyderabad Express, Chennai express or Konark Express with her father in tow. Between CST and Kalyan, she made a minimum of Rs 100-150 daily by way of begging. Interestingly, from this amount she’d managed to save Rs 50 for future use.

Bal Prafulta volunteers and a female sub-inspector, Rajshri Aher, saw her begging in the Hyderabad express at CST on Friday, and detained her. When she began to cry, RPF personnel took her into confidence by offering her tea and biscuits. Bal Prafulta volunteers then counselled the father and daughter for two hours.

“The girl wanted her siblings to attend school as well,” said inspector Shakeel Khan of the RPF office, CST. He added that she was taken to the Dongri Observation Home with permission from her father.  The volunteers of Bal Prafulta have also decided to enrol her in a school.

 The relatives of the victim will take care of her father and two brothers, stated inspector Khan. If the relatives refuse to take responsibility of the boys, Bal Prafulta will look after them with prior permission from their father, he said.

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