Why does India have Beggars?

BEGGARS are found in almost all Indian cities and towns. Most of us dislike them because they bring to light an unpleasant truth. Despite our progress and development, we remain a relatively poor country. Indeed, we have by far the most people living below the poverty level.

Beggars prey on foreign tourists in tourist areas, harassing them constantly. Indians have become habituated to beggars. Foreigners, who have few beggars in their home nations, are not. When a malformed person or a toddler reaches out his or her hand for a few cents, they cringe. The more sensitive people find the encounter so upsetting that they refuse to return to India. These beggars who swarm around outsiders are a shame.

Beggary is a social problem of tremendous extent and significant concern in developing countries, and it is linked to the problems of poverty and unemployment. Begging is an issue for society since a big number of beggars signifies a waste of available human resources and a strain on the community's current resources.

Despite its rapid economic expansion, India is a poor country, which has led to an increase in the number of beggars. It is firmly established that the right to life entails the right to live with dignity and the basics of life.

India's Begging Cartel

Begging has become a major business in India. In fact, begging cartels exist in places including Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon, Mumbai, and Kolkata. Each of these groups has its own gang leader. Each leader assigns a specific territory to a group of beggars, and the day's profits are distributed among them. It is tough to tell who is a genuine beggar and who is not since appearances can be deceiving. Even the children with their filthy cheeks and imploring expressions have been expertly coached to beg and appear genuine. When we see a young woman begging on the streets with her tiny infant, our hearts melt. The baby is usually found sleeping.

This is a scam. Many sting operations have demonstrated that babies are rented to give begging legitimacy. Babies are sometimes poisoned for the entire day so that they appear unwell and can be readily moved from one place to another by young female beggars.

Laws Governing Begging in India

There is no central law in India that criminalizes begging. Despite this, 22 states (including a few Union Territories) have anti-begging legislation. The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, serves as the model for all state anti-begging legislation. The act mandates a sentence of more than three years in prison for the first conviction for begging, and a sentence of ten years for successive convictions.

Legality of Begging

The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, which criminalizes begging, not only criminalizes begging in Mumbai but also in other metropolitan areas such as Delhi. However, in a historic decision last year, the Delhi High Court ruled that the Act is unconstitutional in Delhi, citing violations of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which restore the rights of people who have no other means of subsistence but to seek alms.

The court acknowledged that the application of the anti-begging act has been largely arbitrary, resulting in the detention of poor people who are not engaged in begging but have "fallen through the socially created net" - they could be homeless, poor people living with disabilities, transgender people, migrant or sex workers. The bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Harishankar stated that it is the obligation of the state to provide its inhabitants with a dignified existence.

With the Delhi High Court finding that requesting alms is not a crime, around four lakh beggars in India must have breathed a sigh of relief, even as the government was chastised for turning a blind eye toward the most vulnerable and impoverished part of society. The unprecedented judgment to overturn as many as 25 parts of a bootless, draconian anti-begging law also guarantees immediate release for hundreds of panhandlers who have been convicted and imprisoned for months.

Causes of Begging in India

Beggary, like every other societal problem, has multiple dimensions. Its origins can be discovered in the various patterns of its intertwined and interlaced social fabrics. Various things cited as causes of beggary can be classified as follows:

Physical Factors: There are no suitable provisions in India for the treatment and social rehabilitation of the blind, deaf, dumb, or physically disabled. In the absence of any other option, such people are forced to beg.

Economic Factors: Economic considerations that often lead to people begging. Poverty, unemployment, underemployment, and income loss are all significant causes.

Social Factors: Among the socioeconomic conditions that contribute to begging include hereditary occupation, family disintegration, and widowhood.

Natural Disasters: Our physical environment can be extremely frustrating at times due to famines, earthquakes, drought, cyclones, or floods. All of these natural disasters can inflict major damage to property and farmland, forcing people to flee their homes and resort to begging to alleviate hunger pangs.

Psychological Aspects: Beggary can sometimes be caused by an individual's poor psychology. Among these reasons include frustration, unwillingness to labor, and a proclivity towards isolation.

India's Child Beggars

According to a reasonable estimate, 3 lakh children in India are forced to beg, with tactics ranging from drug addiction to threats of violence and actual beatings. They are the foot soldiers in a multi-million rupee enterprise dominated by human trafficking cartels. According to the Indian National Human Rights Commission, 40,000 children are abducted in India each year, with over 25% of them going untraced. It is commonly considered that these children come from families who force them to beg.

Anti-social / terror gangs kidnap (and in some cases sell) children in India and sell them to the begging mafia. These gangs then transport these kid beggars far away from their homes, making them untraceable. These children are then indoctrinated, tormented, drugged, and forced to beg at traffic lights, near temples, hospitals, and opulent restaurants.

These kid beggars in India are often injured to increase their chances of receiving larger quantities of charity. Some physicians in India have even been caught red-handed collecting money in exchange for maiming kids for these begging mafia lords. Child trafficking is a major problem in India, and the majority of trafficked children are sold to drug lords and begging mafias within the country. Some female children are sold into prostitution on overseas marketplaces.

Best Practices to End Menace of Beggary

Mukhyamantri Bhikshavriti Nivaran Yojna was established in Bihar to safeguard and promote the rights of beggars by providing care, protection, development, socioeconomic and cultural empowerment through enabling policies and programs.

Odisha's government has taken positive steps to identify beggars and provide them with alternatives such as housing, insurance, aadhar and ration cards, healthcare, and training for vocational skills for wage or self-employment.

Several municipal corporations in Maharashtra, including the Pune Corporation, have begun a 'beggar free city' campaign.