Members of the women's commission were shocked to see the girl chained to a tree.
The women's commission last night rescued an eight-year-old girl who was chained to a tree by her parents near a Delhi Metro station where the family of 11 settled at night. When the officials went to meet the parents of the two minor girls they had found begging near the Anand Vihar Metro station, they were shocked to see their sister chained to a tree.
Swati Maliwal, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson, said there were 11 members in the family, including nine children. The mother was pregnant and the father was found in an inebriated state, a DCW statement said.
The parents claimed that the girl had got addicted to drugs and which is why they had chained her, the statement added. However, the girl was unable to say anything.
Ms Maliwal and a member of the commission counselled the family, and with the help of the police and the parents' consent took the sisters to a shelter home. The girls told her that they earned around Rs 300 at the end of the day and slept on pavements with their family.
An inquiry has been initiated into children being forced to beg in the national capital after the rescue, the statement said. The girls were produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) by the DCW with the request that the children be rehabilitated, it said.
Ms Maliwal has also invited suggestions for shelters homes and hostels for the girls, and urged people to come forward and help them. "While there are rackets operating in Delhi forcing minors to beg, there are also several social and economical factors. Everyone has to come together to help," Ms Maliwal said.