Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram   

Crackdown planned on organised begging

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Nov. 11. The City Corporation is preparing to take up the `active' phase of the campaign to enforce the ban on begging. The thrust of the programme will be on eliminating the cross-border begging rackets operating in the city and launching a rehabilitation project.

Efforts are on to close the legal loopholes which could prove to be a problem in handling the beggars rounded up from the streets.

The Corporation has scheduled a meeting with the Deputy Director of Prosecution to seek legal advice on rehabilitating the beggars or transporting them back across the border to neighbouring States from where they are sent by organised rackets.

A senior Corporation functionary said the courts would first have to be convinced of the steps taken by the local body for rehabilitation. The police officials consulted by the Corporation had pointed out that once produced in Court, it would require a Magisterial order to transport the vagrants back to their home States. They also noted that the campaign to enforce the begging ban would suffer a setback if they are set free on personal bail.

The second phase of the campaign involves the setting up of a rehabilitation centre under a registered society named Veedu. The local body has applied for registration of the society as a charitable organisation. Chaired by the Mayor, the society will have a general council and a director board.

In the first phase of the scheme, the Corporation had launched a public announcement campaign to announce the begging ban and create awareness among city residents about the need to discourage begging.

The local body has also procured a specially- designed vehicle to enforce the ban. Painted with the message of the rehabilitation project, the van is slated to tour the city streets. The vehicle will also be used to ferry the beggars rounded up from the roads to the shelter.

The van which was procured last month has been sent back for alteration following complaints that the small windows would be too intimidating for the occupants.

The Corporation is simultaneously working on a plan to equip the shelter at Kothalam with temporary lodging for 30 beggars. The chairman of the Welfare standing committee, M. Vinodkumar, said arrangements would be made to provide medical assistance for the vagrants brought to the rehabilitation centre. An expert committee will also be constituted to advice the society on the rehabilitation package.

In the next phase of the project, the rehabilitation centre will be equipped to impart vocational training to the beggars in a bid to wean them away from the streets and bring them into the mainstream of social life. The local body is hoping to draft some of the vagrants into its sanitation workforce where they can be of help in the segregation of plastics from garbage.

Meanwhile, the Corporation is working out a separate rehabilitation scheme for street children in association with NGOs and social workers. A meeting of the city-level forum on street children last week decided to carry out a detailed survey of street kids in the city. The study is likely to be entrusted with the Department of Demography under the University of Kerala.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Crackdown planned on organised begging
• Patients' death: MCH official gheraoed
• Three youths held on extortion charges
• ADB officials face NGO Union's ire

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu