Can’t take elitist view of banning beggars from streets: SC

New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would never take an “elitist view” and order the removal of beggars and homeless from the streets, because this is “socio-economic problem arising out of lack of education and employment opportunities

New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would never take an “elitist view” and order the removal of beggars and homeless from the streets, because this is “socio-economic problem arising out of lack of education and employment opportunities.”

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Even as it asked the Union and the Delhi governments to suggest measures to rehabilitate and vaccinate beggars to protect them from Covid-19, the top court was emphatic that it would never give the impression that “the Supreme Court of India wants beggars kept away” from the eyes of the public.

The bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and MR Shah was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a lawyer, Kush Kalra, who sought directives to the Union and the state governments for rehabilitating beggars and ensuring they are vaccinated to prevent spread of coronavirus.

But the first prayer in the petition, which was filed through advocate Mohit Paul, asked for restraining beggars, vagabonds and homeless people from asking for money at traffic junctions, markets and public places in all states and Union territories across India so as to avoid the spread of Covid-19 .

Referring to this, the bench said that there was no way the court was going to entertain the petition if it was premised on a prayer to direct removal of beggars.

“It is a function of poverty. As a Supreme Court, we won’t take this elitist view that we don’t want to see beggars on our streets. Why do people beg? Because they have no choice. They are deprived of sufficient means of livelihood. Nobody wants to beg otherwise,” remarked the bench.

It added: “If we issue a notice on this petition in the way it has been drafted, people will think the Supreme Court of India wants beggars removed from their eyes. We can’t say ‘keep them away from our eyes’. We will never do this. This is a socio-economic problem which the Centre and states must address as a wider issue of social welfare policy. There should rather be education of the children who we see on the street begging.”

Senior advocate Chinmoy Pradip Sharma, arguing for the PIL, agreed that the petition was not properly worded and emphasised that the prayer could be confined to rehabilitation and vaccination of the beggars. Advocate Mohit Paul too submitted that the petitioner wanted the plea regarding a restraint against the beggars withdrawn since they were in the court primarily to seek rehabilitation.

Following this submission, the bench agreed to issue notices to the Centre and the Delhi government , seeking their response on “how to deal with this human situation” for urgent need to vaccinate beggars, vagabonds and homeless people and provide basic amenities during the pandemic. The court further requested solicitor general Tushar Mehta to assist the court on the next date of hearing.

In its order, the bench recorded that the petition will be amended in order to do away with the prayer on removing the beggars from the streets.

“At the outset, we have indicated that the court is not inclined to countenance a prayer seeking a direction in the above terms. The reason why people are required to take to the streets to beg is to eke out an elementary livelihood in the absence of education and employment. It is a social-economic problem and cannot be remedied in this way,” the court noted in its order as it fixed the matter after two weeks.

Kalra’s petition said that the Union government and states were not only duty-bound to secure the right to health of each and every individual in our country but to ensure that the beggars be rehabilitated across the country.

“The respondents (Centre and states) should be directed to prepare a road map to rehabilitate the beggars and the vagabonds with the help of social welfare departments and the district magistrates of the concerned states,” stated the plea.

It added that till date there was no legislation or policy in India providing for rehabilitation of beggars either at the central level or at state levels despite the fact that the number of beggars in all states and UTs is at least 400,000 according to official data of the Government of India issued in March 2021.