Victims of do-gooders.

"Lakshmina Patel and her husband Haresh sold their two-year-old son Raja to a couple for Rs 20,000 on September 5." "Lakshmina...had just given birth to a baby girl. The woman running the hospital asked for Rs 4,000 to discharge her." "Haresh requested the villagers for a loan but no one gave him any money. Helpless, he sold his son through a middleman." The Wire. Lurid headlines such as these are meant to make us feel guilty and create pity for the struggles of the poor. While India's poor do suffer there are many questions in this case. Why did they give birth to another child when they could not feed the first? "India ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index - 2023 with the country reporting the highest child wasting at 18.7%." ET. This in a country where, "Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India will become a $30 trillion economy by 2047. She said the country will become a $5 trillion economy by 2028." DD. And, the 2024 Hurun India Rich List said that "India minted a new billionaire every five days last year." We are proud to have a total of 334 dollar billionaires. ET. The government spent an enormous Rs 21.03 trillion on social sector expenditure in FY 23, a jump from Rs 9.1 trillion in FY 16. A survey in 2019-21 found 16.4% (228.9 million) of the population suffered from multidimensional poverty and 18.7% (260.9) were vulnerable to multidimensional poverty. pib.gov.in. Despite all this spending the family did not possess a Ration card, when the government is providing free food grains to 813.5 million people for five years at a cost of Rs 11.80 trillion (pib.giv.in), an Ayushman card which has been provided to 347 million people and provides Rs 500,000 per year for hospital treatment (pib.giv.in) or an MGNREGS card which provided 100 days of paid work to 83.2 million rural people in the financial year 2023-24 (BS). In addition to the central schemes, "In fact, the Economic Survey of 2022-23 had pointed out that as of December 2022, there were more than 2,000 such schemes run by state governments." Hence, "in this quick and disguised way, India is moving towards a universal basic income," wrote Vivek Kaul. The list is endless. "After reverses in the general election and facing possible losses in state polls this year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's coalition has stepped up cash handouts, debt waivers and other freebies." Reuters. "Mr Modi says his government has spent more than Rs 34 trillion ($400 billion) in the past decade, delivering cash benefits to low-income households and reaching over 900 million people." BBC. The father of Haresh received agricultural land from the government on lease, which he sold illegally, Haresh received Rs 110,000 under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and has sold his son for Rs 20,000 which should be a heinous crime. So is this a delinquent family and will the child be much better off in a family where he will be fed, educated and cared for? It seems that do-gooders think that poverty is a pardonable excuse for criminal behavior. They may be doing enormous harm. Children are the victims.