The Kondhwa police sent 40 beggars from two locations to a rehabilitation facility under the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, which criminalises begging. A team of policemen and women were involved in the action which was carried out between 1:30 pm and 4:30 pm on Friday at Jyoti chowk and Kausar Bagh Masjid.
Of the people who were caught, 29 were women while 11 were men, police inspector Sanjay Gaikwad, who led the action, said. Before Friday, the Kondhwa police had booked 21 other beggars under the law.
The arrested beggars are taken to court before being admitted to the rehabilitation home in Vishrantwadi. While senior PI Gaikwad claimed that the facility provides rehabilitation to its inmates, they have to go through a remand period of 14 days after which the probation officer at the facility is expected to file a report.
Maneka Gandhi, Union minister of women and child development wrote a letter to Thawar Chand Gehlot, Union minister of social justice and empowerment in August this year, asking for the law to be made rehabilitation-centric rather than criminalising begging.
"It is understood that the anti-begging laws in other states also are derived from the Bombay Act. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this legislation fails to address the casual factors of begging and takes an archaic approach which violates the rights of children and contradicts the protective provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act," Gandhi had written in her letter to Gehlot.
{{/usCountry}}"It is understood that the anti-begging laws in other states also are derived from the Bombay Act. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this legislation fails to address the casual factors of begging and takes an archaic approach which violates the rights of children and contradicts the protective provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act," Gandhi had written in her letter to Gehlot.
{{/usCountry}}“I was thinking of doing this for almost a year now. These men and women begged, ate and spoiled the area around the places from where we picked them up. Some of them even had mobile phones. They used to pull clothes of foreigners and people who visit the area,” said senior PI Gaikwad.
The action was taken on the orders of Deepak Sakore, deputy commissioner of police, Zone 4, a statement from the Kondhwa police claimed.