Begging to be caught

More than two months after Delhi authorities launched mobile courts to convict and remove beggars from the capital’s streets, the controversial initiative has made a faltering start.



On a recent trip with police officers through the chaotic streets of Old Delhi, the difficulties for the anti-begging teams trying to get Delhi ready for the Commonwealth Games next year were plain to see.

The simple idea is that police nab the beggars and bring them before a judge on a bus which accompanies the officers. If convicted, they are sent off to “rehabilitation centres”.

In his khaki uniform, SK Tyagi and three colleagues are on the frontline in a fight pitting the force of the law against the force of numbers.

One campaign group estimates there are 200,000 beggars on the streets of New Delhi.

“They’re beggars, but they’re too old,” Tyagi said, pointing to two old women with grey hair and dirty clothes as he picked his way through rickshaws, cars, crowds and overloaded trucks in the dust and noise of Old Delhi.

The two women he had identified ducked into the darkness of an adjacent sidestreet off the main Chandni Chowk thoroughfare.

The team of police officers next tried their luck at a nearby Sikh temple - religious sites being a favoured spot for beggars.

A elderly, bearded man with bare feet sat at the entrance.

“He hasn’t got his hand out, so we can’t stop him,” said Usha Rani, the only woman in the team, whose exasperated tone suggested the complications of her mission were not lost on her.

A little further on, the roaming team found someone who looked like he might fit their strict criteria - aged about 40, he was holding out his hand to indifferent passersby while sitting on a filthy straw mattress.

But after closer examination, it was another false start.

“It’s a leper,” said Tyagi, who explained that they didn’t want ill people.

As he spoke, a group of children could be seen tugging at the clothes of Western tourists asking for coins in full view of the police.

According to Tyagi, they were not arresting children either, mainly because the judge did not have the legal power to convict minors.

In the end, the mobile court parked a short distance away saw no action.

One government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, conceded the futility of a fight with limited resources against the tide of beggars.

Rights groups have already attacked the government’s attitude to beggars ahead of the Commonwealth Games, which run from October 3 - 14, 2010, saying prosecuting them does nothing to solve the underlying problem of poverty.

According to a World Bank report, 42 per cent of India’s nearly 1.2 billion population falls below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day.

“We can’t really do much with two mobile courts for the whole city,” admitted the government official.

In a city of 16 million people, only eight police officers and two judges have been assigned to the mobile courts, which are set to function for the next 12 months.

According to the local government, 70 beggars have been arrested since the start of the operation, most of them men from poor Indian states.

If it is their first offence, those convicted are expected to spend between one and three years in a rehabilitation centre where they are supposed to learn a profession, such as plumbing or carpentry.

Repeat offenders can be sentenced to up to ten years in these special institutions, which separate men, women, children and the handicapped.