Woman makes Rs 2.5 lakh in 45 days by forcing her 5 kids to beg: Report

Madhya Pradesh's Indra Bai has been making headlines ever since it emerged that she earned Rs 2.5 lakh in 45 days by begging and forcing her young children to beg. The woman -- who owns a plot of land, a two-storey house in Rajasthan's Kota, a motorcycle, and a phone worth Rs 20,000 -- is a repeat offender and has recently been booked for forcing her five children to beg, the Times of India reported.

Indra's children are aged 10, 8, 7, 3, and 2. “Rather than starving, we chose to beg. It is better than stealing,” Indra Bai told volunteers of an Indore-based NGO, Sanstha Pravesh, when she and her seven-year-old daughter were being taken off the streets.

The woman would place the older kids strategically at the busy Luv Kush Square in Indore to beg. The crossing leads to the popular Mahakal temple in Ujjain. She reportedly told the police that she chose the location as it was a transit point for Ujjain.

Pilgrims on their way to offer prayers were unlikely to shoo away women and children seeking alms. The footfall in the area was around 2,500 per day but after the temple was constructed, it shot up to 1.5 lakh a day, the Times of India reported. The temple also boosted Indra's earnings until she got caught begging with her seven-year-old daughter on February 9.