The State Charity Commissioner will start a rehabilitation drive to make Maharashtra free of beggars, and the pilot campaign will start in Mumbai on Friday.
The office of the commissioner, with help from the Women and Child Development Department and the police, will move beggars to State-run beggars’ homes. NGOs under the Charity Commissioner will train them for skilled and unskilled labour and rehabilitate them in society.
Charity Commissioner Shivkumar Dige told The Hindu, “We plan to move beggars from outside religious institutions, railways stations, traffic signals and other areas. Besides staff from my office, police officers and other government staff will accompany us.” He said the State has more than one lakh beggars.
There are 13 State-run beggars’ homes, which run way below capacity, housing merely 500-odd people. “These homes have the capacity to accommodate 3,500 people. We will pick up as many beggars as we can accommodate in these homes,” said Rahul More, Divisional Deputy Commissioner, Women and Child Welfare.
While giving alms is often seen as a good deed by many, the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, criminalises begging. But it is often seen as being more lucrative than taking up a daily wage job. In 2006, the government told the Legislative Council that beggars in Mumbai earn ₹180 crore a year.
“We are going to do all due diligence as per the Act. The beggars will be presented in front of a magistrate and then sent to the beggars’ homes. NGO members and counsellors will approach adult beggars and find if they have any skills or are interested in anything particular. They will be trained accordingly,” said Mr. More. They can take up work as mechanics, security guards, drivers, tailors, and waiters, he said. He said NGOs like Koshish, Salaam Baalak Trust, Vatsalya Foundation and BJ Home for Children have been roped in, and more will join the drive. Child beggars will be produced before the Child Welfare Committee and sent to children’s homes.
The Charity Commissioner said that as begging is mostly concentrated in urban areas, after Mumbai, the drive will be undertaken in Thane and Pune in the next few weeks.
