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Visiting Indore after Jan 1? Giving alms to beggars will land you in trouble
Indore district collector Ashish Singh claimed that the administration in recent months has exposed the role of different organised gangs who make people beg.
Indore will start registering FIR against people who give alms to beggars in the city from January 1, 2025. The district administration said the new measure is a part of its efforts to make the city free of beggars.
“Our awareness campaign against begging will go on in the city till the end of this month (December). If any person is found giving alms from January 1, a First Information Report (FIR) will also be registered against him/her,” said Indore District collector Ashish Singh, adding that the administration has already issued an order banning begging.
“I appeal to all residents of Indore not to become partners in the sin by giving alms to people,” Singh told news agency PTI.
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The district collector claimed that the administration in recent months has exposed the role of different organised gangs who make people beg. He also said that “many people” involved in begging have been rehabilitated by the administration.
SMILE initiative
The Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has been implementing a pilot project under SMILE (Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise) initiative to make 10 cities beggar-free, which includes Indore.
The scheme will be implemented through state governments, local bodies, voluntary and other organisations. It aims to provide a range of services including awareness generation, identification, rehabilitation, provision of medical facilities, counselling, education, skill development and sustainable settlement of persons engaged in begging.
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The scheme acknowledges that begging, for most people, is not out of choice but a matter of survival. The rehabilitation measures are supposed to be implemented in a manner that it “respects destitute persons’ dignity, their capacity to fulfil their potential and their right to participate in decisions affecting their life”.
The ministry notes that begging is “the most extreme form of poverty”. It also notes that forced measures are futile and stresses the need for “long-term collective action”.
According to the 2011 Census, the total population of persons engaged in the act of begging and vagrants is about 4.13 lakh, which includes 3.72 lakh under non-workers category and about 41,400 under marginal workers category.
