Rescued a week ago, 3 child beggars run from Pingalwara care home in Amritsar

In an embarrassment to the district authorities here, three child beggars out of the six caught under the Jeevanjyot 2.0 campaign in Amritsar ran away from the Pingalwara's care home late last night.

They were being kept under All India Pingalwara Charitable Society’s care home after the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) officials rounded them up a week ago under the project Jeevanjyot.

Aged between 10 and15 years, the three children claimed to have arrived in the city with their families.

They escaped from the Pingalwara branch at the bus stand late on the night of July 23 by using a ladder to climb over a wall.

Ironically, the children had been provided police security, with two woman constables keeping a vigil on them on the request of the Pingalwara authorities.

The DCPU has filed a daily diary report (DDR) at the Rambagh police station to trace the kids. According to the DDR, the kids, aged 10, 12 and 15 years, escaped between 1.30 am and 2 am, using a ladder to climb over the wall. “We are looking at it from all aspects as to how they could have evaded security and escaped,” said District Child Protection Officer, Amritsar, Taranjit Singh. It is suspicious that these kids had identified the blind spot (area without CCTV surveillance) to use it for their escape. And why only these three kids managed to escape,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Pingalwara authorities, including Yogesh Suri, chief administrator, Pingalwara, confirming the escape, said they too were investigating how the kids escaped. Earlier, Dr Inderjit Kaur, director, All India Pingalwara Charitable Society, had called out the state government agencies for their lack of vision and planning in initiating the campaign.

“We had raised this fact with the DCPU when these kids were brought in, so we had requested police security as we do not have much staff to keep overnight vigil. Most of these children picked up from the streets are abandoned or are runaways, who have no family care. Others are forced to beg by their families. Additionally, government agencies do not have robust tracking systems and no one comes to claim them. Our role is to only offer immediate shelter, food and safety to these kids as they come to us,” she said