Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Begging ban: Corporation seeks police help

T. Nandakumar

Space limitation at the shelter home hampers rehabilitation efforts

NO SPACE TO SPARE: Inmates of the shelter home for beggars run by the City Corporation and the Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust in Thiruvananthapuram. Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

Thiruvananthapuram: A growing influx of migrants from the neighbouring States threatens to overwhelm the City Corporation's temporary shelter for beggars and make a mockery of the begging ban in the city.

Hordes of itinerant beggars have descended on the city, to capitalise on the pilgrim and tourist seasons. Corporation officials say that the Police Department is not helpful in crushing the growing menace that is fed by well-organised inter-State begging rackets. They warn that the beggar rehabilitation programme would be derailed without the support of the police.

At many places, the beggars have virtually taken over public places like bus stops, footpaths and shop fronts. Residents, pedestrians and commuters are harassed by the alms-seekers, including children.

Police failure

The Corporation's efforts to deal with the situation are seriously hampered by space limitations at the shelter home where 40 inmates are currently accommodated. Civic officials point out that the police have failed to honour an assurance to crack down on violations of the begging ban. "Beggars rounded up from the streets by the police are simply dumped at the shelter. Cases are not filed against them and they are not prosecuted for violation of the ban," says an official.

Chairman of the Corporation's standing committee on welfare Rajendra Das said many of the beggars brought to the shelter required special treatment. "There are aged, diseased and mentally- deranged people among them. Some of them are also criminal elements who cannot be accommodated along with the others. Recently, an inmate picked up a fight with another and started beating up others after working himself into a frenzy. Two migrants who were transferred to hospital, succumbed to old age and disease. Some of the arrivals also harbour communicable diseases," he says.

Mr. Das said efforts to push the beggars back across the border to their home State had met with little success. "In no time, they are back on the streets here." The shelter has played host to 200 beggars since it was opened early this year.

Filing case

Mr. Das said the beggar menace in the city could be solved only if the police started filing charges for violation of the begging ban. "Once a few beggars land up behind bars, the rest will flee the city and probably never come back," he says.

In 2000, the Corporation had identified nine acres of land at Kalladimukham to set up a rehabilitation centre where inmates would be provided vocational training in a bid to wean them away from the streets and bring them into the mainstream of social life. The local body had also drawn up plans to draft some of the vagrants into its sanitation workforce to help in the segregation of domestic waste. The project, however, did not take off.

The current programme, titled Saakshatkaram, is a diluted version of the original scheme.

The shelter is managed jointly by the Corporation and the Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust.

Police for action

The Fort police Assistant Commissioner V.C. Mohan said plans were afoot to crack down on migrant beggars. "While the infirm and the diseased will be sent to the shelter, the able bodied among the vagrants will be booked for violation of the begging ban. We are trying to work out a multi-pronged strategy to provide a deterrent. The plan will be implemented in association with the Prosecution Department and the Corporation," he said.

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