Minor girl forced to beg to feed her ailing mother
KOPPAL Karnataka): Six-year-old girl from Koppal district of Karnataka, Bhagyashree, has taken to begging since last one week to feed her mother, Durgamma, who has been admitted to hospital.
“I don’t have my father so I want my mother to be well. I have no money that is why I have to beg. I asked people for money and feed my mother with that money,” Bhagyashree told reporters.
Dugramma has been admitted to the hospital due to her drinking problem. Due to Dugramma’s drinking problem, the six-year-old’s father left them to marry another woman.
Bhagyashree has been begging in and around the hospital premises since the last one week. She has been feeding and cleaning her mother as well. This drew the attention of people visiting the hospital.
The people made the hospital administration aware of the condition of the daughter-mother duo, which reached the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), who took up the matter.
The CMO instructed the Women and Child Welfare Department to take care of Durgamma and to ensure they return safely to their native place post-treatment. “The chief minister’s office also instructed officials to ensure good education for the child,” according to Eranna Panchal, Joint Director, Women and Children Welfare Department.
In January of this year, as many as 2,000 women staged a massive demonstration in Chitradurga district of Karnataka, seeking a complete ban on the sale of liquor in the state. At the time, an observer had asserted how these women understood how alcoholism represented economic and health problems.
One such instance which demonstrates the ills of excessive liquor consumption has come to light from Karnataka’s Koppal district. The Department of Women and Child Welfare Development (DWCD) of Karnataka has decided to pay for the medical treatment of a woman admitted to a local hospital in Koppal and is being treated for health issues caused due to alcoholism.
The case caught the department’s attention after pictures and videos of the woman’s six-year-old daughter begging on the streets for the past week in order to feed her ailing mother began doing rounds on social media.(With ANI Inputs ).
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“When she came, her condition was not good and she was not capable of walking. She’s from Karatagi Siddapura, she also has a boy who is studying in fourth standard. We are collecting more details. Right now we have her brother with us to give us more information. We will give free education to the girl in a government school and free treatment for the mother is also being ensured,” Mr Panchal said.
