Rehabilitation of Beggars in Hyderabad With Special Focus on Women and Children

Beggary: A Socio-Economic Concern

Is there a town in India where there are no beggars? Is there a place of worship in India where you do not find people asking for alms? In the Indian sub-continent, with its rich religious heritage, alms giving in various forms has been overtly and covertly nurtured. In addition, the traditional, cultural and religious forces led to the creation and sanction of religious mendicants like the Hindu Sanyasis and Sadhus, Bhikshus; and Muslim Fakirs.

These practices have taken the present proportion where beggary is no longer restricted to those desirous of helping the poor but it has escalated to the magnitude of being a complex social evil with its roots deeply embedded in the Indian soil. Today the situation is such that the beggar begs, unfortunately, with the attitude of one demanding daily wages or with the contentment of one proudly carrying on his/her parental profession.

Beggary has become a social problem intricately interwoven with the socio-cultural and economic milieu. At the outset, it is more a problem from the point of view of the beggar him/herself. It implies for him/her a life of squalor and filth, of need and disease, of ignorance and exploitation. More so, it is a form of personal disorganisation as it indicates the failure of an individual to adjust him/herself with his/her social milieu.

Also, begging is as much a problem for society. It is a symptom of social disorganisation as well, because a beggar on the street is an indicator of an ill-organised society, which is not able to adjust him/her properly. On the other hand, a large number of beggars would mean non-utilisation of available human resource as also a drain on the existing resources of the society.

Statement of the Problem

The recent trend shows an increasing number of beggars at the traffic junctions in the cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. This situation is growing worse day by day and attracting the concern of the public towards the interruptions in the smooth flow of traffic as well as increasing the risk of accidents for the beggars and passerby. An equally distressing and worrying factor is the increasing number of adolescent girls at such junctions.

The possibilities of abuse and exploitation, including that of sexual abuse of these young girls cannot be overruled. Another distressing factor is the increasing number of children inducted into this occupation. It is in fact the parents who are literally pushing their children into begging, having no other ostensible means of livelihood.

Beggary is in fact a rights issue where survival and protection itself remains at stake. The basic need fulfillment, denial to dignity and respect, suspicion and stigma are the issues that need to be addressed. The homeless of any city have the same human rights as any other citizen.

These rights are recognized under the Constitution of India, Indian National Laws and various International Conventions such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW):

Housing or Decent Shelter

• Employment
• Health
• Education
• Affordable Water and Sanitation Services