Children should be in schools, adults at work!
Begging should be discouraged at all costs. Children should be in schools while adults should find jobs to support themselves and their families. If the authorities take adequate steps to put all children in schools and create enough jobs, we can certainly tackle this menace. Education up to class 12 must be free of cost. Schools must also have skill development programmes and offer students part-time jobs, so that children don’t turn to begging to fulfill their basic necessities.
Ankush Dubey, via email
Tax beggars
Decriminalising begging has only increased the problem. Begging is smart work done by clever artists, many of them able-bodied, who even use infants for evoking sympathy. What we have not done is register begging as a service. By doing so, the state can tax the beggars. Many of them earn better than the common man. This will also help keep a check on illegal activities of kidnapping and maiming of children.
Gehna Vaishnavi, Panchkula
Help them find avenues of growth
Child begging is a scourge on an educated society. Lack of database about child beggars is one reason for this unending menace. People also give alms to these children out of sheer lack of awareness or religious beliefs. This makes a child beggar continue on the path, instead of exploring other avenues of growth. Remedial action needs to be taken and solutions found. The administration should have a dedicated child helpline number, where public can report child beggars, so that they can be rehabilitated.
Rajeev Kumar, Chandigarh
{{/usCountry}}Rajeev Kumar, Chandigarh
{{/usCountry}}Education and vocational training
The menace can be tackled by giving vocational training to the abled-bodied beggars and creating rehabilitation homes for the old and disabled beggars. With regards to child beggars, they must be educated and encouraged to become self-dependent adults.
Capt Amar Jeet, Kharar
Strict policing
There should be strict policing to identify and rehabilitate beggars. They must be thoroughly examined by doctors, introduced to personal and public hygiene, and told about the various policies of government for self-employment. NGOs must be roped in to help them pick-up skills. Retired educators should come forward to teach them moral values and dignity of labor.
Ramanjit Kaur, via email
Help them be self-reliant
Support the poor, but by helping them to get educated and become self-reliant. There are several wealthy families and city that can get together to fund counseling sessions for those who getting into begging. Start by first providing them food and shelter and then win their trust and teach them the right way of living.
Shubham Dhiman, Chandigarh
Start by working to eradicate poverty
To end begging, start by working to eradicate poverty. Of late, begging has become part of an organised crime. Small shelters have to be made to impart skills to beggars, so that they can get themselves some jobs. They should be made to earn their livelihood by working and not begging. Government and NGOs should look after people who are aged and physically challenged.
Vineet Gandhi, Manimajra
Track beggars to identify their origins
Begging is not an easy option and many with no family or financial support are compelled by their circumstances to get into begging. Beggars need to be tracked to identify their origin and dealt with accordingly. Those with no financial support should be helped to earn a respectable living by gainful employment. Giving out alms will only add the number of beggars.
DS Banati, Mohali
Ban entry of beggars
Many squatters throng the City Beautiful to earn easy money. Residents who are in a habit of buying items at traffic lights boost their morale of not giving up begging. The administration must ban the entry of squatters and a verification check should be made. A shelter should be made for beggars, and they should be imparted education apart from providing some vocational.
Abhilasha Gupta, Mohali
Society needs to be compassionate
While the sudden appearance of beggars at traffic signals is irritating and risky both for the driver and the beggar, they cannot be done away with as the Indian society needs to be compassionate and is happy with the joy of giving.
SC Luthra, Chandigarh
Authorities haven’t made enough efforts
Now beggars have become omnipresent, they are present around all religious places, bus stops, railway stations, markets and traffic lights. They disturb the traffic, sometimes even cause accidents. Begging is banned in the city, yet it continues unabated as neither the police department, not the administration or municipal corporation has made concerted efforts to end the menace.
Kidar Nath Sharma, Chandigarh
Society needs to introspect
Several measures have been taken over the years to end the menace of begging, but it continues to prevail. We, as a society, must introspect into why the situation prevails. One can often see the destitute trying to eke out a living by selling small products at lightpoints. Many can also be seen living in jhuggis. We is it that some sections of the society are still deprived of a decent.
Kundan Lal Sharma, Mohali
No fear of law
Begging is not an old-age scourge but also a curse for mankind. From the past few years, we have been seeing a lot of begging children in the tricity and its outskirts. The recent incident of attack on a cop who was trying to rescue a child beggar shows that people involved in human trafficking have no fear of police or law. Police should strengthen their informer network so that they can keep a close eye on people involved in human trafficking.
Sandeep Rawat, Chandigarh
NGOs, residents must work together
The menace of begging is growing day by day. The administration, NGOs and residents must come together to help beggars get educated and earn a living through employment. Residents also need to form a platform to ensure that the administration doesn’t give up on this campaign.
Rajiv Varma, via email
As responsible citizens, stop giving alms
The best way is to abolish the begging is stop giving alms. Police patrolling should be increased in every area to curb the activities of anti-social elements, including human trafficking gangs. Penalise those involved in begging. Provide education opportunities, shelter, healthcare and insurance to the destitute to keep them away from begging.
Prabhjot Nagpal, Zirakpur
Don’t promote idlers
In Indian mythology ‘daan’ or charity has great significance, and is said to be the path to moksha or salvation. But sadly, in reality, charity only promotes idlers. Begging is a nursery for drug addicts, and criminals. Manjit Singh Johar (retd), Chandigarh
A social menace
Begging is not just a menace but crime. Those who are forced into begging are mostly kidnapped children. If begging is to be wiped out of society, administration must not let the beggars roam around the city. Residents should refrain from giving alms.
Opinder Kaur Sekhon,Chandigarh
A reflection of gap between rich and poor
Beggary is a reflection of the divide between the rich and the poor. It also means governments of the day have failed to provide social security to all its citizens. There should be a law to take care of beggars and a minimum social guarantee for food, medical, education and shelter should be provided by the government. After all, they are also humans!
Anil Kumar Yadav, Chandigarh
Need clear roadmap to tackle menace
On one hand, Chandigarh aims to be a smart city, on the other hand, it is unable to deal with the age-old practice of begging. One can find several beggars, many of them minors, at the traffic lightpoints, near shopping centres, religious places and even in the university. Drug and other nefarious activities are also inter-woven with the menace of begging. The administration must chart out a clear roadmap to tackle the problem. It should start by conducting a survey to ascertain the number of beggars in the city, and then work to rehabilitate them. The administration must also crush the mafia running the begging racket. Col RD Singh (retd), Ambala Cantt
Punish those encouraging beggars
Human trafficking rackets are not only ruining the future of the children, but also forcing adults and old agers into beggary. Beggars are a common site at traffic junctions, busy markets and religious places. It is due to the laxity of the social welfare and police departments that the menace prevails. Beggars should be put in shelter homes and provided food and essentials. As members of the public, we can play an important role by not entertaining their demands. There should be punishment against giving anything to beggars.
Subhash Chugh, via email
Need a clear cut law on begging
India has no clear cut law on begging and seeking alms was common practice. Times have changed and the need of the hour is to ban begging completely as it puts the lives of public at risk. Authorities. with help of NGOs, and social organisations must set up shelter homes for beggars and provide them vocational rehabilitation training to make them self-occupied. Beggars’ children must be provided free education, uniforms and books to make them self-reliant at par with other children.
Col TBS Bedi (retd), Mohali
Prosecute those giving out alms
A person will beg only if there is any chance of receiving alms. A beggar cannot survive if no one is giving him anything. What authorities do to curb this scourge is that they catch the beggar but no one catches the person who is paying a beggar. I believe society is the main culprit for this unending practice. To bring this menace to end the easiest and most successful way will be to prosecute/fine the people who are giving alms and supporting the beggars.
Gaurav Jain, Chandigarh
Monitoring needed
24x7 monitoring by traffic police and social welfare department officials will prove helpful in putting an end to this old menace.
P Mehta, via email
Menace has acquired enormous proportions
Begging, in our nation, has acquired enormous dimensions as a distasteful profession, having been patronised by unreasonable sanction from citizens. Whatever miserable be one’s plight, an aggrieved person is often shy to beg at public places. We do observe in daily life many physically handicapped persons earning money through whatever work they can perform. It’s not the poor but mischievous hard-work shirkers who beg so blatantly.
MPS Chadha, Mohali
Donate to NGOs that work for needy
Residents must stop giving out alms to beggars, and instead give to NGOs that are known to work for the poor and needy. The government authorities must make sure that each citizens is assured of the basic necessities, so that they are not pushed into poverty. For those, who are already trapped in the problem of beggary, authorities must make efforts to teach them skills that can help them gain employment. Strict policing at public places is also needed to curb beggars.
Vijay Malia, Chandigarh
Access to job opportunities
Initiatives taken by the welfare department have failed to check beggars who can be found in crowded markets, outside places of worship and those who go door -to-door on auspicious days like weddings and birthdays. The worrisome part is they train small children to beg. It is a matter of shame that small girls and transgenders are seen begging in trains. It is important to offer paid jobs to able-bodied beggars. Identifying them and knowing their number requires an exhaustive survey. Non-governmental organisations should come forward to collect ration from the residents and supply it at their shelters.
Usha Verma, Chandigarh
Reader of the week
Education only way to bring children out of beggary
We, as a society, need to have a compassionate outlook towards beggars, most of who enter the trade as a result of extreme poverty. There needs to be an organised and committed campaign to end this menace. Education is the only way to bring children out of clutches of beggary.
V K Aggarwal, via email
What experts say
Organised racket
Begging in India is an organised racket, carried with the help of local criminals. Children from poor families are kidnapped, maimed and forced into begging. The menace prevails largely due to official apathy.
APS Shergill, lawyer, Punjab and Haryana high court
Two-pronged approach
The dept is adopting a two-pronged approach to address child beggary --educating the masses on ill-effects of giving alms and setting up alternative education/skill building systems to pull families away from beggary.
Nitika Pawar, secretary, social welfare department
Awareness
Market associations must put up posters asking customers not to give money to child beggars. Sometimes the beggars also snatch things from customers. But unless the administration and police don’t play a proactive role in implementing the ban, things won’t improve.
Neeraj Bajaj, president, Business Promotion Council, Sector 17, Chandigarh
Discourage the practice
I urge people not to give any money to beggars as it encourages child trafficking. Police must appoint a nodal person for each area and responsibility must be fixed to rescue child. Parents who send children for begging must be penalised and these children must be taught useful skills and enrolled in schools.
Harjinder Kaur, CCPCR chairperson
Rehabilitation
People move to cities in search of jobs, but due to non-availability of jobs, many are forced to sell or send their children for begging. Covid has also aggravated the miseries of poor families. The authorities must make efforts to rehabilitate such children.
Ranjay Vardhan, head, department of sociology, PGGCG-42, Chandigarh