Decriminalising Beggary in India

In News

Recently, the Supreme Court (SC) has asked the Centre and four States to file their responses on a plea seeking a direction to repeal the provisions criminalising begging.

Background

• In February 2020, the SC sought a response from the Centre and five States (Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar) on a plea related to decriminalisation of beggary.
• The plea referred to the Delhi High Court August 2018 verdict which decriminalised begging in the national capital and the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act 1959, which treats begging as an offence.
• It highlighted that the total number of beggars in India is 4,13,670 (Census 2011) and the number has increased from the last census.
• A notice was issued to all these states, however, only Bihar had so far filed its response.

Beggary in India

• It is a problem associated with poverty and unemployment and is a social problem of great magnitude and grave concern in developing countries.
• Definitions
  • The Bombay Act defines a “beggar” as anyone “having no visible means of subsistence, and wandering about or remaining in any public place in such condition or manner, as makes it likely that the person doing so exists by soliciting or receiving alms”.
  • “Begging” under the Act includes “soliciting or receiving alms in a public place, whether or not under any pretence of singing, dancing, fortune-telling, performing or offering any article for sale”.

Concerns

• In India, there is no central law on beggary yet and states use the extended colonial Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, which criminalizes beggary.
• Neither the Indian Penal Code (IPC) nor the Act explain what is meant by “soliciting alms” or what constitutes a “public place”, leading to ambiguity, inconsistency and abuse in the practical implementation of the law.
• Also, there is no proper enumeration of beggars in the country and the number of women and children is ever increasing.
  • The 1931 census mentioned just 16% women beggars which shot up to 49% in 2001 and there are 10 million street children many among who beg for livelihood.
• The sections of the statute criminalising begging were violative of constitutional rights.
  • Criminalising begging violates the most fundamental rights of some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
  • People in this stratum do not have access to basic necessities such as food, shelter and health, and in addition, criminalising them denies them the basic fundamental right to communicate and seek to deal with their plight.

• The provisions of the statutes criminalising the act of begging put people in a situation to make an unreasonable choice between committing a crime or not committing one and starving. It goes against the spirit of the Constitution and violates Article 21 i.e. Right to Life.
• The presence of beggars is evidence that the state has failed to provide these basic facilities to all its citizens, thus instead of working on its failure and examining what made people beg, criminalising the act of beggary is irrational.
• The Abolition of Begging and Rehabilitation of Beggars Bill, 2018 was introduced in the Lok Sabha but has not been passed yet.
• The absence of a uniform law governing beggary has resulted in thousands of poor facing more hardships because of arbitrary statute.

• Changing the attitude towards beggars is also a huge concern.

Suggestions

• The government should provide social security to everyone and ensure that all have basic facilities, as embedded in the Directives Principles of State Policy in the Constitution.
• All provisions, leaving some sections, of the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act 1959, Punjab Prevention of Beggary Act 1971, Haryana Prevention of Begging Act 1971 and Bihar Prevention of Begging Act 1951 should be declared as “illegal and void”.
• The Abolition of Begging and Rehabilitation of Beggars Bill 2018 should be passed to clear the arbitrary statute of beggary and finish the perils of the beggars.
• Diagnosing the problem of begging and addressing the root causes will automatically lead to the solution of this problem.
  • The root cause is poverty, which has many structural reasons: no access to education, social protection, discrimination based on caste and ethnicity, landlessness, physical and mental challenges, and isolation.
• The solution calls for a comprehensive programme and reorientation of the existing programmes. Philanthropic approach to the beggar problem should be replaced by therapeutic and rehabilitative work.
• India as a nation needs to think for its begging population. With the nation aspiring to achieve world standards in every field socio-economic measures are needed to curb the begging problem in India.

Source: TH