Child

Living in Chennai for the past 5 years, I have been seeing this beggar woman at a traffic signal near my house. She sleeps on the pavement while her baby is wide awake sitting next to her. I often see this and get worried that the child may crawl on to the road. Sometimes I see this woman at another signal feeding her baby with a bottle of milk. She takes great care to rinse out the bottle first. Once I bought her a packet of biscuits. She haggled me for money. I walked off. Another time I bought her some buns. Again she wanted more. In the last 5 years I haven't seen the baby grow. Is it the same baby she's been carrying around for the last 5 years ? Is this a beggary racket ?? I wonder who is behind this. At the traffic signal, there are children on their way to school in two-wheelers or cars. Their parents are giving them instructions to eat their snack, jot down the homework, etc. The children are accessorised with the latest in schoolbags....PowerRangers, Dora the Explorer, Barbie, etc.
I wonder what the child on the pavement is thinking........will he/she ever experience a normal childhood ??