Homeless and Poor Lost their Livelihood Due to Games Cleanup

Hundreds of homeless and poor in the city have lost their meagre livelihood courtesy the clean-up drive ahead of Commonwealth Games. Authorities have been rounding up beggars from the roads and outside temples, and many others have been caught by the cops at traffic intersections.

A balloon seller, Hira, fears she will have to go hungry for days. ‘‘Many have already left the city. The authorities have made no arrangements at the shelters where they are asking us to stay put,’’ she says. The message to the downtrodden is clear: don’t step out, lest the Games visitors spot you.

Delhi Police claims it is not carrying out any drive to clear the roads of beggars and has only provided a team of 25 personnel to the social welfare department for whatever action it takes to prevent beggary. The social welfare department, meanwhile, was not forthcoming with details and simply gave out a figure of 1300-odd beggars who have been rounded up since January. The department has come under criticism for not being able to work out a human solution to the problem of begging. It has failed to create a mechanism in which beggars can be productively involved in other tasks.

But even as the cops and the city government claim they are not carrying out any aggressive drive, one can see the beggars and homeless gradually disappearing. While a number of them have fled the city out of fear, those who are still in the midst of the storm are on vigil, always looking out for cops or the vehicle from Sewa Kutir which apprehends beggars. Hanuman Mandir complex is a case in point. Here, the number of beggars has significantly gone down but vagabonds can still be seen lost in deep slumber in the nearby subway. Hira, who lost her child last year after the MCD demolished a night shelter to beautify a park at the Pusa Road roundabout, now lives with 450 other homeless at a 24-hour MCD shelter in Motia Khan. For over a fortnight now, the men and women who sell balloons at traffic signals are being shooed away by the officials. As many are afraid to step out of the shelters set up by the civic agencies and run by NGOs, the homeless, beggars and destitute are already facing a food crisis.

Raju, another balloon seller, pointed out that he has six children and is now left with no money to buy food for them. Another inmate, Suresh, complained that he had been left without any means of sustenance. Kishan Lal’s grandmother died at the shelter on Sunday but he didn’t have the money for cremation. Finally, the others somehow pitched in for the last rites. A similar situation exists at the shelter at Kilokri near Ashram.

‘‘More and more people are taking refuge in shelters because they are afraid of being caught by the police or the anti-beggary squads which are very much on the job. The result is that these people have run out of money and now fear that hunger will strike soon. Even those on the streets are facing this issue,’’ Indu Prakash Singh, an expert on urban poverty and homelessness from Indo-Global Social Service Society, said.

The society on Monday, as part of the ‘City makers’ campaign, issued an urgent appeal to other civil society networks to come forward to help with ration supplies which can be distributed at the shelter homes.

Zero tolerance for Begging in the City

The Delhi Government is gearing up to deal with the problem of beggary in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games. While 12 points have been identified as zero tolerance zones, three mobile vans have been added to increase prosecutions and mobile courts are on the job.

The problem of begging came up for discussion during the question hour of the Delhi assembly on Friday. Social welfare minister Mangat Ram singhal informed that the drive to prosecute beggars had been on since October.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit stressed the need to replace the Bombay Beggary Act. She revealed that the Centre is working on legislation on the issue of beggary for the entire country. But if that takes long, the state government may frame its own law to replace the archaic provisions of the Act.

Second Round up – Beggars to be out from Delhi

The Delhi government wants the streets clear of beggars for the Commonwealth Games in October. And it's come up with a plan: since most beggars are from outside the city, it wants them repatriated to their home states.

The government has sent letters to the chief secretaries of 10 states, asking them to take back the beggars.

"The letters have been sent... This will be done ahead of the Games," said Manoj Paridha, secretary, social welfare, Delhi government.

Though comprehensive data is missing, a sample survey in August 2009 of 11 shelters capacity 2,018 -- run by the Delhi government revealed that most outstation beggars came from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

That month, of the 1,518 beggars rounded up by the Delhi Police anti-begging squad, 1,099 were from outside the city.

Letters were sent on February 12 to West Bengal, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh too.

"Most of the beggars said Delhi gave them a better opportunity," said a social welfare department official.

"Even if they begged for two days, they earned for the entire week," he added.

"So far, we've received a response from only West Bengal. They have asked us for details of the beggars and what needs to be done," said the official.

"We will take a final decision after we get all the responses and get our survey done," he added.

"Why should we go back to our home state? We have been living here for many years," said Sushila (35), a native of Jodhpur who begs at the Tolstoy Marg-Janpath crossing.

"There is not even a drop of water to drink back home," she added.

"I was born here. We have not been told about any such order," said Noora (12), who hails from Bihar.

Beggars in the city may get relief by the government

The administration of Delhi had big plans to shift beggars outside the city, about which I had posted earlier, but the Delhi High Court on Thursday came down heavily on the city government for forcing the beggars to leave the city for their native states. Terming it as a ‘‘crime against humanity’’, the court equated this move with the action of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s campaign against migrants.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice S Muralidhar took strong exception to such proposed action, saying ‘‘poverty is not a crime’’ and beggars cannot be forced to leave the capital.

‘‘It’s strange that a criminal can reside in the city but if someone is asking for alms, then he is thrown away,’’ the court said disapproving the government’s plan of action to combat the problem of begging in the capital, in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games. The government has in a related matter before another Bench claimed that 90% of beggars in the city are migrants from neighboring states and it is co-coordinating with all these states to ensure that the beggars are sent back to their homes. It has also claimed that rehabilitation is being worked out for them.

The court has also sought the assistance of attorney general to deal with de-criminalization of begging as under Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, it is a criminal offence punishable up to three years of imprisonment if arrested for the first time and he/she can face to 10-year jail term for repetition of the offence. HC was hearing a PIL filed by social activist Harsh Mander, challenging the Constitutional validity of the Act.

On the last hearing, the social welfare department of the Delhi government has agreed that some of the provisions in the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, which considers begging a serious offence, leading to the immediate arrest of the person without any warrant, are obsolete and require amendments.

Delhi to be Cleared of Beggars

20 additional police personnel for anti-begging operations is under consideration and 10 cops appointed to tackle 60,000 beggars(Is it a joke, How Could they?)

The hard days are days for beggars in the city, whom you can see outside every temple or gurudwara across the city, because government has taken the decision to kick them out, keeping in mind to show a clean face of the city during 2010 CWG.

Eager to present a ‘clean face’ of the national capital during the Commonwealth Games next year, the Delhi government is arming itself with 13 vans and 10 cops to clear the city of its estimated 60,000 beggars.

The city government told the Supreme Court on Thursday that it was geared to tackle the problem. In an affidavit before a bench headed by Justice Dalveer Bhandari, the government said two of the vans had been modified to function as mobile courts to try the beggars caught during anti-begging operations.

But how does the government intend to tackle thousands of beggars, one-third of whom are children, with such little police force? And, what kind of living conditions awaits these people after they are ‘caught’?

The government thinks it has the right answers. On the allegations of petitioner Karnika Sawhney that its beggar homes lack basic facilities and space to accommodate the huge number, the state said: ‘‘Adequate arrangement for boarding, lodging, food, clothing and medical care, as per the norms, are in place in all the beggar homes and institutions.’’

On the inadequacy of the police force in tackling the numbers, the government said: ‘‘The proposal to create posts of 20 additional police personnel for anti-begging operations is under consideration. However, in the meantime, 10 police personnel have been deployed by the Delhi Police for assisting the mobile courts in anti-begging operations.’’

The bench accepted the Delhi government’s affidavit but asked petitioner’s counsel Indra Sawhney to verify the facilities claimed to have been provided by the state at beggar homes and report back to the court by August 10.

It also said that two judicial officers, T S Mutti and Mahendra Kumar Gupta have been appointed as special metropolitan magistrates for the mobile courts to try cases under provisions of the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959. More than four months ago, the state government had taken a stand before the Delhi HC that it was readying a new law to replace the 50-year-old Bombay Act.