Ready for Games? Delhi’s anti-beggar drive faces practical hurdles

Amidst ongoing efforts by authorities to make the national capital beggar-free before the Commonwealth Games, social activists say the drive faces a practical problem.

With just eight months left for the mega sporting event, authorities are on their toes to ensure the city is free from beggars before it receives thousands of tourists from around the world. For this, the authorities are taking the help of a 50-year-old anti-beggary law to sweep off panhandlers from the capital’s roads.

However, social workers say it is easier said than done. “You can’t just make them vanish from the roads either by arresting them or putting them in shelters. It’s practically impossible and lacks vision,” says Sanjay Kumar of Ashraya Adhikar Abhiyan, an NGO that works for the destitute in the capital.

“How can you accommodate thousands of beggars, most of whom are homeless, in a few shelters or in jails which are already overcrowded,” Kumar said.

According to the social welfare department, the estimated number of beggars in Delhi is around 60,000. Among them 30% are below 18 years of age, 69.94% are males and 30.06% are females. But NGOs claim the numbers to be more than one lakh.

“Thousands of migrants come to Delhi in search of a livelihood. Some get work, while others are forced to beg. There is no official record of their number or whatsoever,” says Anshu Gupta of Goonj, an NGO working for the poor.

“It’s poverty that forces beggars to opt for this. You can’t sort out the problem only through a law,” Gupta said.

Delhi is using the (Bombay) Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, which has been adopted by 18 states and authorises the police to detain anyone found begging on the streets.

If found guilty, the person is sent to one of 12 shelters in Delhi, which can accommodate about 2,200 people.

Delhi’s social welfare minister Mangat Ram Singhal had announced setting up a dozen of mobile courts for trying beggars.

At present, two such courts are operational and have tried more than 60 persons, according to a senior official in the social welfare department. “We prepare a social investigation report of those arrested under the Beggary Act. We try to find out whether the person had no other means of earning except begging. In most of the cases the beggars are found to be professionals who otherwise could have earned a decent living,” a source in the department said wishing not...