(Web Desk) - The so-called fee-paying thief schools in India are training teenagers for a life of crime.
The criminal education includes a range of lessons which produce “professional” gangsters on “graduation”.
Three villages in Madhya Pradesh, central India – Kadia, Gulkhedi, and Hulkhedi – are notorious for training children to steal, according to an Indian news media outlet.
Parents send their children, around 12 to 13 years old, to these “thief schools” where they join local criminal gangs and receive skills training.
The “teachers” are gang members and seasoned criminals.
The curriculum includes pickpocketing, bag-snatching in crowded places, evading the police, and withstanding beatings. Children are also taught how to gamble and sell alcohol.
A place at a “thief school” costs parents 200,000 to 300,000 rupees (US$2,400 to US$3,600) in tuition fees.
The students usually come from less educated and impoverished families.
They are trained to blend into wealthy families and gain entry to the most exclusive high-society weddings.
After a year of schooling, the teenagers could “graduate”, stealing jewellery at the weddings of the rich.