Mostly beggars and homeless, they are used to spending lives routinely on the open streets of Delhi.
Sohan Lal (66) is an able-bodied beggar hailing from Madhya Pradesh. He moved to Delhi in 1947 and pulled rickshaws to make a living. Now old and frail, he spends his entire time on a pavement at Nizamuddin West in South Delhi and survives off alms offered to him. "I am blinded with my left eye so I cannot work," says Lal, with sunken cheeks and pensive look. "People offer me food and I live off it."
Why doesn't he move back to his native place? Lal responds, almost helplessly,"I have no home."
Just few yards away, 76-year-old Noor Bi came to Delhi from Hyderabad 22 years ago following the death of her husband. Bi has two sons who work as rag-pickers across the city. "The wages they earn each day are enough only to feed themselves," she says, tears welling up her eyes. Mindful that under statutes begging in Delhi remains a criminal offence, Bi stopped short of admitting to it, but conceded that she survived off alms-giving "whoever offered voluntarily." "No, no...I don't beg." she retorts cautiously. "I stay here and people give me food."
There is no official data on the number of beggars in Delhi. However, a 2006 study by the department of social work, Delhi University concluded that 44.36% of them come from states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Just 4.96% belong to Delhi.
In 2010, authorities came under severe criticism for their alleged drive against street beggars on the heels of Common Wealth Games. There have been countless subsequent drives as well. During one such drives, recalls Noor Bi, she was tossed at with lit matches by cops. "It was painful; they treated me badly," she says.
The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 defines 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."
Experts allege that the law gives unrestrained powers to enforcement agencies that often arrest persons on the charge of begging and if convicted, detains them in certified institutions for a period of "not less than one year and incarcerates for up to a period of ten years for second time offenders."
"This law is against the very right to life that our constitution guarantees," says Ashish Goel of National University of Juridical Sciences. "It has defined begging in ambiguous terms. It gives carte blanche powers to police forces that often arrest people for merely how they look."
Prakash (70), a street dweller near Lajpat Nagar was picked up by police and shifted to Home for Male Beggars at Sewa Kutir Complex earlier this year but he ran away later due to his disinterest in work. "They give you good food but involve you in some menial jobs that are tiresome and exhaustive," he says.
Some NGOs, however, view these centers with sheer skepticism. "These so called rehabilitation centers are jails," says Kirti Mishra of Indo-Global Social Service Society (IGSSS), a non-profit charitable organisation. "These beggars, with whatever background, come to city because their respective states fail to provide them with a dignified livelihood and yet they are rounded up here and taken to these centers that are no better than jails."
Most of these people are elderly citizens abandoned by their families. "On footpath they become vulnerable to vagaries of climate, police assaults etc," she says. "A state ought to be inclusive towards all its citizens. It is absolutely criminal on part of the government to exclude people in such a way." "There are many private old age homes in Delhi but they are too expensive for these people. If the state could build affordable old age homes, it will go a long way in rehabilitating homeless people and if it doesn't people will continue sleeping on roads," Mishra says.
Director of social welfare, Delhi declined to comment citing that she was unauthorized to speak to the media. "Talk to the minister" she said. Despite repeated attempts, minister of child, women and social welfare, Rakhi Birla could not be reached.
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