41 child beggars rescued

The state authorities have rescued 41 children in the past two days under the Project Jeevanjot to eradicate the menace of child begging.

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The Punjab Government has introduced DNA testing in suspicious cases to identify if accompanying adults are a child’s biological parents.

In a statement, the government said the first phase of the project had started in September 2024, under which 367 children were rescued.

Of these, 350 children were reunited with their families, while 17 children, whose parents could not be identified, were sent child care homes, the statement said.

“When we see children begging on our streets, it is not just their dignity that suffers, it raises serious questions on our society’s collective conscience,” said Punjab’s Social Security, Women and Child Development Minister Baljit Kaur.