Beggary Prevention Legislations in India

BEGGARY PREVENTION IN INDIA:

EXCLUSIONARY ANTI-POOR LAWS REIGNING THE NATION

Abstract

India has seen the phenomenon of beggary for centuries together. Begging has been one of the oldest coping mechanisms for the poor in India. In almost every religion in India, giving alms is considered to be a deed of charity. However, social attitudes towards begging evolved, with the changes in modes of production in which the productive potential of individuals was emphasized and begging became a direct threat to the prominent values such as work initiatives, stable social relations, and beauty and decency. With the growing rage of coping up for survival, in the absence of livelihood options, there have been an ever increasing number of people driven into begging across India. In spite of the huge push of the poor and destitute into begging, there is not much knowledge and literature available on the issue.

There are a large number of people who are not only excluded and marginalized but also criminalized. The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 defines a ‘beggar’ as “one soliciting or receiving alms in public place whether or not under any pretence such a selling article or performing, exhibiting injury of self or other, having no visible subsistence and wandering”. Under these laws, a person could be detained for several years, simply for being a destitute. The legislations are used across 22 states and three union territories for the purpose of charging vulnerable groups like the homeless, tribes, rural poor, Dalits (ex-untouchables in India) for their ostensible poverty. Begging for a living is charged with a maximum term of imprisonment for life under the Act. The anti-beggary laws are testimony to the most anti-poor and colonial mindset of the State.

There is a popular notion of belittling the problem and criminalizing a huge populace, that include destitute women and men, the mentally ill, senior citizens, leprosy patients,...