Data collected nation-wide suggests that the number of beggars has reduced from 6.3 lakh in 2001 to 3.7 lakh in 2011, a reduction by nearly half. West Bengal has the highest number of beggars while Nagaland and Mizoram have the least. If the methods adopted for counting beggars is robust and sound, then the reduction is an achievement. Begging is illegal and the country owes this status to archaic British law against vagrants. Under the present law anyone convicted of begging could spend between one to 10 years in a beggars’ home. In the larger cities begging is an organized system. Children are kidnapped and forced into begging. Some are even maimed to draw sympathy of passersby. However, the Centre is thinking of rescinding the anti-begging law and replacing it with a new legislation called Persons in Destitution (Protection Care and Intervention). The new law would give vagrants certain rights and hopefully shield them from police, who at present, can pick up any one on the hunch that the person is a beggar. Begging cannot be stopped by laws because those who live on the edge of survival will resort to desperate measures to keep body and soul together. Inclusive development alone can bring down the number to manageable limits.
