CHILD BEGGARS EXPLOITED, BEATEN AND MAKING A SMALL FORTUNE

Child beggars exploited, beaten and making a small fortune - for others

By Connie Levett Herald Correspondent In Bangkok
August 13, 2005

Page Too

A new snapshot of the begging trade in Bangkok shows a business built on children trafficked from Cambodia and Burma who never profit personally from their lucrative daily takings and are sometimes beaten to make them objects of greater pity.

No one can say how many children are begging in the Thai capital but the three-month survey of the trade earlier this year shows children aged from three months to 10 years are working long hours in tourist destinations and busy business precincts. A handler sits close by in a small business, perhaps selling flowers, and regularly collecting the cash.

"It is like they are enslaved children. To be forced to work is one of the worst forms of humiliation," said Ealkak Loomchomkhae, a legal officer with the Mirror Foundation, the Thai non-government organisation that ran the study. The findings are set out in a report released with the International Labour Organisation last week, Child Beggar Business - Investigating Children in the Beggar Business.

The survey, during which researchers observed the beggars at four central Bangkok locations for three months, proved "this was not normal begging, it was a business", Mr Ealkak said via a translator.

It is a lucrative trade, with children making between 500 baht ($15.80) and 3000 baht a day for their brokers. They receive only basic food and accommodation. A shop assistant earns 6000 baht a month.

The survey showed old women carrying very young children or babies, one old woman with a different child each day or the same children with a different mother. Rarely did the children speak Thai: most of them came from Cambodia or Burma. The brokers got the children from poor families in the border regions by buying, renting or kidnapping them, Mr Ealkak said.

"They talk to the parents, offer them 3000 to 7000 baht-a-month rent for a child. They want children from three months to 10 years old because that is the age that appeals to passers-by," he said.

Urban myths abound in Bangkok of beggar children whose hands have been cut off to make them more lucrative. "I've heard about cutting off the hands but I've never seen it," Mr Ealkak said. "I did see pinching, hitting with wood, punching. It can be interpreted as a way to control the children; but also, when people see scars and bruises, it melts the hearts and it's evident these children make more money."

While the number of beggar children working in Bangkok is hard to quantify, Mr Ealkak said hundreds have been rescued and rehabilitated. Before a child is sent home, NGOs and the ministry evaluate the family. "If they believe they will sell the children again, they will not send them back."

He said the situation for beggar children had improved in that it was now seen as a problem. "When I started working with beggars [three years ago], nobody worked on it. Now there are more organisations paying attention." In July, the Royal Thai Police set up a division focused protecting children and women. Lieutenant-General Kumronwit Thoopkrajong, the division's commander, said through a translator that the beggar children would be treated as "victims, not as criminals".

"The laws about begging say if one person makes another, especially a child, beg for money, they violate the law," he said.

"You can go to prison for up to five years for making money off a kid as a beggar."

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beggars among the children

Tuesday April 6, 2010
Begging runs in the family

KLANG: Their grandmothers were beggars, so were their mothers. Now it is their turn to take to the streets.
This seems to be the way a Myanmar community here has taken to make a living.
Their grandparents were among thousands who entered the country as refugees from Myanmar in the 1970s.
For many Klang residents, the sight of groups of female beggars holding babies in their arms in the North Klang bus terminal area used to be a common sight for decades.
During the early years, the beggars and their babies would sit on a pedestrian bridge that connected Jalan Pos to the former Great Wall shopping complex.
Starting young: A child begging for money in Klang.
Their older children would be roaming around and begging in the vicinity of the busy terminal area and a former food court which has now become Plaza MPK.
Forty years have passed and Starprobe has discovered that successive generations have taken over the “trade.”
Checks revealed that the offspring including children and grandchildren – some as young as five – are now plying the streets.
A mother of five, when approached, admitted she used to beg with her mother as a young girl. Now her own children are following in her footsteps.
The 28-year-old woman, who declined to be named, said her mother stopped begging when she (the daughter) was in her teens and old enough to hit the streets on her own.
“My mother now stays at home and does the house work,” she said.
Confirming that subsequent generations were taking over from their parents, Klang Consumer Association president A. Devadass said he recognised at least one of the beggars who had inherited the “trade” from her mother.
He said the woman used to accompany her mother when she was small. Now she was begging with her own children.
“I knew her since she was a child. She recognised me as I used to talk to her those days,” Devadass, who helps the refugees, added.
The beggars, whose numbers could go up to 50 during weekends and public holidays, have become part and parcel of the hustle and bustle life in this part of the town.
While the children move freely around these areas, their mothers often place themselves on the pavement in front of a row of shops at Jalan Pos.
Some of these beggars will also occupy the open space around the bus terminal area.
Most of them will arrive at the area with their children at about lunchtime and stay on till 9pm. They start in the mornings during weekends and public holidays.
They can take home a substantial amount during the weekends and public holidays due to the heavy flow of people and long hours.
Starprobe discovered that some of the women deliberately got pregnant so that they could have babies to cuddle in their arms, an effective strategy to get the public to donate.
“I’m sure you will feel pity for the baby and offer me some cash. Otherwise, you may chase me away,” said one of them when casually asked why many of these beggars had babies.
She added that they were the real mothers and the babies were not hired as some people suspected.
What is not established is who the fathers of the children are. It is learnt that most of the mothers are without husbands.
Devadass said the men supposedly leave their “wives” and get engaged with new partners frequently.
A child beggar, when asked about her father’s whereabouts, said: “My father is dead.”
Devadass said some of the men would stay at home as they felt they did not need to do the hard and dirty work of begging.
“The men apparently rely on the labour of their wives and children,” he said.
*suzana*