Begging is banned. Who’d believe it!

Hundreds seek alms at traffic signals across Bengaluru. Why is the city’s beggar rehabilitation programme a failure?

The 1940s were when leprosy patients were abandoned by families in Bengaluru, forcing them to resort to begging. Jyachamarajendra Wadiyar, the then Maharaja of Mysore Province, felt this was a bane that needed tackling. He purchased 308 acres of land in Kottigepalya in Bengaluru to rehabilitate such people, which came to be known as Beggar’s Colony.

The sprawling area is located at the junction of Magadi Road and Outer Ring Road on a prime location called Sumanahalli. This is supposed to house and rehabilitate the beggars arrested from streets, or ‘rescued’ in official words.

Inmates getting their evening exercise in the rehabilitation centre off Magadi Road Bengaluru.

In 1949, it became a separate entity, but there were no proper rules to monitor its functioning. Similar centres were opened in other districts of Karnataka as well. Today, they are called Nirashritara Parihara Kendra (NPK-Centres for rehabilitating the destitute people).

The Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act enacted in 1975 banned begging in Karnataka. It also gave a structure to the functioning of the centre, by mandating the formation of the Central Relief Committee which has offocials from the social welfare and finance departments, non-official members nominated by the government and local bodies.

The receiving and rehabilitation centres work under the committee and the Social Welfare Department. Public complaints against begging can be made to the round-the-clock Social Welfare Department helpline at 94823 00400.

How does rescuing work?

According to the rules, persons found begging violating the Act’s provisions can be arrested or rescued. They are classified as able-bodied, disabled, diseased, mentally deranged, infectiously affected, etc., and as male, female and children.

Once the complaint is lodged, officials deputed by the Central Relief Committee arrive in an ambulance to the area, take photographic proof of the begging, rescue them and produce them in front of the District Magistrate.

Upon making sure the case is genuine, the Magistrate authorises the centre to keep the rescued people in the NPK centres. Bangalore North taluk tahsildar is the authority for Bengaluru.

The detained are released if they can prove they were not begging or if their families come and take them away, sometimes after paying a fine and issuing surety. Otherwise, typically, the detention period is a year. The 163-acre campus of the rehabilitation centre offers a spacious abode for the detained, where they are sheltered and given food.

The newly rescued people are kept under quarantine to ascertain their physical and mental health before mingling with the rest. Those with leprosy are sent to a separate rehabilitation centre run by an NGO inside the Sumanahalli campus.

Each group is accommodated separately from the rest. Care is taken to prevent inmates suffering from infectious diseases from mingling with others. Those needing healthcare are given basic medicines at the dispensary-cum-20-bed-hospital on the campus itself, while those with serious illnesses are admitted to Victoria Hospital, say officials.

All the medicines the inmates need are taken care of by the state health department. Addiction withdrawal symptoms, liver cirrhosis, cancer, diabetes and disability are the common problems seen in most people.

About one-third of the rescued people fall into the mentally ill category and need psychiatric help, says Rajendra. Currently, 265 inmates have been classified as mentally ill, while 252 are senior citizens and 52 are disabled. About 296 inmates are classified as physically fit. The numbers keep changing every week as rescues and rehabilitations are ongoing.

Training in job-oriented skills

Able-bodied people are trained in various skills or employed in various jobs in-house. They are paid Rs 75 per day as salary and are given identity cards and bank passbooks. Tailoring, coir mat-making, binding, power-loom and handloom operations, detergent making, housekeeping, horticulture, and dairy and sheep rearing are some of the activities people are trained in.

Inmates get vocational training such as tailoring coir mat-making and operating handloom or powerloom.

Suresh (name changed), one of the inmates DH spoke to, who is into tailoring, said he has completed ten months inside the campus and will get into tailoring or cooking after he goes out.

The data shows that 334 people are currently undergoing various trainings. Most are into manual tasks — 155 in housekeeping and cleaning, and 38 in farming and horticulture.

Rajendra J P, Superintendent of the rehabilitation centre in Bengaluru, says many people who go out work as attenders, watchmen or tailors, or in chemical factories.

Beggars who abscond without an order of discharge or resort to begging after getting discharged can be re-arrested and produced before the Magistrate. Abettors of begging can be arrested and prosecuted before a court of law.

Currently, the Act and the rules do not specify any penalty for those who issue alms or donate to beggars. People feel banning charity is a regressive practice. “Those who are into charity help the ones in need. If the government systems could prevent begging, we would not see anyone on the streets today. Why should they stop someone from helping others?” asks Raghavendra R, a resident of Rajajinagar in Bengaluru.

Why are there still beggars on the streets?

Rajendra says the challenges are multifold. Many times, the rescued people escape the detainment by establishing by some means that they were not really begging, by showing identity proofs, travel information or other documentation, which makes them ineligible for detainment under the Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975.

The Act allows people to seek alms if they are religious or related to customs and rituals — they can collect alms in a private or public place without being a nuisance. People dressed up as Hanuman or something else seeking money in traffic junctions fall into this grey area.

Transgender persons seeking money in traffic junctions and busy roads are a common sight in Bengaluru. They also fall in the grey area — many do it in the name of tradition. There is also another reason: A flaw in the Act itself.

“The 1975 Act and the rules formed under it define the persons to be arrested as men and women. There have been instances where transgenders were arrested, but the organisations that work for transgenders questioned it, saying the Act does not mention transgenders. We had to release them,” Rajendra says.

The rehabilitation of the rescued people is the real challenge for the system. The data for 2024 shows that out of 865 inmates, 481 were from Karnataka, and the rest were from other states and spoke various languages. Most people return to begging after getting released, especially if they are from another state.

Life becomes challenging for those who are released but cannot work — especially unskilled people with health challenges. They resort to begging again without the medical care, food and shelter they need. The officials have no clue how to stop this, as not everyone can get trained in various job-oriented skills.

BBMP owes Rs 593.6 Crore beggary cess in five years

Another problem that needs attention at the official level is the defaulting on the 3 per cent beggary cess collected by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike every year as part of the property tax payment. The replies to a series of RTI applications filed by Venkatesh Nayak, an RTI activist, in July 2024 show that BBMP has paid Rs 135.65 Crore and Rs 73.42 crore are still pending for 2023-24. According to the data, the BBMP owes Rs 593.9 crores of beggary cess in the last five financial years to the Central Relief Committee.

Proper financing is essential to have adequate staff to train and monitor everyone. The Act itself needs many amendments to address the nitty-gritties, say experts. All of these make it challenging to fully prevent begging on the streets.

Rajendra says the department is thinking of solutions to the existing problems and is open to suggestions from civil society.