Editorial
The begging malady
Remedial steps welcome
The High Court directives upon the government to bring to a halt incidence of abduction and maiming of children and forcing them into begging in the streets are welcome. It is manifestly barbaric, not to speak of being a social menace.
Street begging has also stained the image of the country particularly when the waiting vehicles at the traffic signals are approached by physically challenged in full glare of the public, and even tourists. Many with ailing, deformed and disabled children in their laps risk their lives and limbs keeping wafer thin distance from the vehicles screeching to a halt or rushing out as green light blinks.
Most of these people trace their origin from villages. They have been driven by poverty and landlessness from river erosion, pauperization and scarcity of employment to land on the cities.
In this context, it is good augury that the cabinet has approved a draft Vagrant and Shelterless People (Rehabilitation) Act 2010, to rehabilitate street people, with provisions for lifetime imprisonment or death sentence for forcing anyone into begging. The decision to rehabilitate them through various measures is certainly a good move. According to a government survey, there are about 12 lac vagrants in the country and the number of beggars and their dependants adds up to nearly a crore, of them 80 per cent live in urban areas and the rest in rural areas. Dhaka and other cities are drowning under the pressure.
The government plan to build vagrant homes in the entire 64 districts for rehabilitation will have to be backed up by sustainable programs that could bring this large number of vagrants into the mainstream population enabling them to contribute to national development.
Private and non-government organizations can play a huge part in lending support to the government programs in this virtually unattended sphere of our national concerns. It is inspiring that many voluntary organizations have shown their eagerness to work on this ground.
While alms-giving is piety and has been a part of our religious conviction and culture, the recalcitrant have been feasting on the sympathy of the people for the poor. By now we all know that street begging is a lucrative trade suspected to be run by an organized band of people, who may also have been indulging in larceny, mugging, child and women trafficking and drug trading.
We would like to see the den of racketeers tracked down and put out of action right away, or they will undermine the progressive character of the society.
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