Beggar Rehabilitation Measures in India

 From my recent pilgrimage to Sabarimala and a few other places, I just observed that beggar menace in India is increasing like anything. You can find beggars virtually in every place. Though the individual entities have taken steps to keep beggars off their limits, the problem still persists. I would significantly quote, ‘Travancore Devaswom Board’ for having put boards en route Pampa to Sannidhanam that begging is prohibited in the route and a request to pilgrims in not encouraging them. The specific note is put up in Tamil, English, Hindi and Malayalam.

 I remember a film comedy by Goundamani and Senthil which shows that beggars are normally picked up by Corporation and Municipal authorities and given rehabilitation by suitably employing them for small cottage industry work. I am just wondering what happened to those mysterious measures. I have written a email query to cop@vsnl.net on the same a week back but it is still pending any valid responsible reply from them. 

  1. On a quick Internet research, I found this topic on the subject (Begging for Change). As per the article only NGOs are currently active in providing relief measures for beggars and cops only end up abusing the already challenged souls.
  2. While I did a quick search for any IPC provisions on the same, the only article I was able to locate was ‘Bombay Beggary Prevention Act‘.

 Serious Issues of Beggary: 

  1. When beggars go near international tourists and seek alms, it presents a negative image for the country.
  2. Antisocials often cripple young kids and dumb animals like monkeys and parrots with the malicious intent of demonstrating the handicap to public and to gather funds for their selfish use.

 I just thought of sharing about this act with other readers to see if others also could suggest if there are workarounds against this menace and we can submit petitions to the government and administration to actively look into this issue and address the malady.