Elderly abandoned by families take to streets

A majority of the elderly beggars nabbed by officers of the prisons department have families that are living comfortably. They have been forced to beg in order to feed themselves after being neglected, mistreated, or abandoned by their families.

Some of them have taken up begging to be able to care for their grandchildren after the demise of their children.

Ms Garimella Annapurna, 30 from Krishna district, AP, is a graduate and worked as a teacher and as a sales girl in a cloth store. She came to the city to stay with her siblings after being neglected by her husband Hari Prasad. She ended up fracturing her shoulder in a minor accident, which rendered her unable to work. Her siblings refused to care for her and she was forced to start begging. She was brought to Anand Ashram on October 20 and has been waiting for her brothers to come and release her ever since.

Ms K. Satthavva, 50, has her own house, but she has lost both her sons and both her daughters. “After the death of my sons, my daughters-in-law took their children and went to their native places. After the death of my daughters, my sons-inlaws left their children in my care. I am forced to beg to look after my grandchildren. I am worried about my grandchildren now. How must they be managing at home? They don’t know my whereabouts. I have been requesting the Ashram staff to release me,” she said.

Prisons DG Vinoy Kumar Singh said the department would take care of all inmates at the Ashram. “We have identified educated and skilled workers. We provide them with jobs; they can teach prisoners under Vidyadanam Scheme, and they can work at the prison-run petrol bunks. After the launch of our operation, the organised beggars’ mafia has fled the city,” he said.