• Begging as a phenomenon involves many layers, and it is critical to identify and understand the reasons that lead a person to beg for a living.

Present approach is penalising :-

• Colonial hangover:-The vagrancy and beggary laws in India are a colonial hangover, promoting unequal labour relations and used as a tool of social control over the unruly.
• The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 :-
  1. It is a comprehensive piece of legislation that criminalises begging in the country.
  2. Many states (such as Delhi and Gujarat) have adopted this act, either in toto or with minor changes.
  3. This act criminalises people for being homeless or without regular employment (who they are) rather than for their actions (what they do).
  4. It does not only criminalise destitute persons but violates their right to live with dignity, affecting all aspects of their lives.
  5. This act provides for the detention of not only those who beg but also their dependents. This is possibly the only legislation, with the exception of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act, 1956,7 in which the offender’s family is punished for being dependent on their income
• Against the constitutional provisions:-
  1. As far as the constitutionality of these legislations is concerned, they go against the grain of due process rights and are specifically in violation of Articles 19(1)(a) and 21 of the Constitution.
  2. Article 38 of the Constitution provides that the state shall secure a social order for the promotion of welfare of the people.
  3. Entry nine in the State List of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution makes the relief of the disabled and unemployable a state subject.
• Presently, begging is punishable with up to 10 years of detention under most state laws, with a provision for indefinite detention under certain circumstances in some of the state legislations. 
• Anti-beggary laws exist in more than 20 states and two union territories in the country:-These legislations criminalise begging irrespective of their physical, economic, or psychological states of helplessness.
• The anti-beggary law lacks bite when it comes to curbing organised begging:-While it provides for detention of up to 10 years for a person caught for begging (in case of a repeat offence), it provides only for a three-year sentence for an offender who forces a person into begging.

Why there is a need to bring social and economic capacities of the state:-

• People get into begging due to their extreme states of vulnerability and after every other possible support mechanism collapses.
  1. Poverty, the inability to procure jobs due to illiteracy or lack of skills, disability or disease and destitution due to old age or mental illness are some of the reasons behind a person entering into begging, often reaching a state of destitution where survival becomes the only concern.
  2. Begging is largely induced by poverty and is often tied to various axes of discrimination and social exclusion such as caste, class, age, gender, disability, and ethnic background
• Detention without adequate systems for capacity-building and rehabilitation only increases vulnerability.
• Reasons behind begging are mostly due to inefficiency of government:-
  1. The movement towards an individualistic society and the breakdown of family support systems is leading to increasing neglect of the aged and disabled, pushing many of them into the streets.
  2. In addition the reduced access to the welfare schemes and programmes and the lack of relevant livelihood skills in tune with emerging markets are adding to the growing problem of destitution and beggary.
• Mostly police  bring in the homeless destitute, especially the abandoned or those with mental illness, to beggars homes in the absence of any other suitable place to take them. This clearly reflects the state’s inability to take care of its disadvantaged groups.
• With the arrest of an individual, their family too bears the brunt of the arrest, as they may be dependents, and especially puts their children at risk.
  1. The arrest of an earning member could result in a parent being forced to beg, children dropping out of school and/or being forced into begging or child labour, or the female spouse being forced to work in an exploitative situation. 
• Role of the state as a protector of the life and well-being of its citizens underlines its responsibility to reach out to the destitute and those involved in begging as well as to understand their psychological, social, economic, and cultural contexts. As the first challenge, the custodial mindset of the state has to be replaced with a community-based approach.
• Affected individuals largely need to be approached with sensitivity and care as they need the support of the state for their rehabilitation.
• Criminalising approach towards the poor goes against the concept a caring state:-
• It has to address the underlying causes by retracing the lives of the people and identifying the factors and situations which led them to their present state of destitution and dependence. 
• Judicial pronouncement:-
  1. The Delhi High Court observed that begging is an offence in a country where the government is unable to provide food or jobs

Way forward :-

• The following interventions are needed :-
  1. Tracing the victims families, providing emergency support to families and offering them legal aid and guidance
  2. Submitting social investigation reports before the judiciary in the beggars courts about the person’s psychosocial situation
  3. Building capacities through vocational skill training and work placement
  4. Providing emotional support and counselling
  5. Pre-release preparation
  6. Arranging medical support
  7. Training and sensitisation of the state machinery, including institutional staff and the police.
• The community-based program includes an education programme for the children, assistance in acquiring citizenship documents, emotional support to families, support for shelter and livelihood, vocational training and so on.
• Legislation and policy should provide for structures and an institutional framework that builds people’s capacities to move out of destitution. Instead of putting people behind closed institutions, the emphasis should be on creation of shelters and soup kitchens to provide temporary succour to people in distress.
  1. Government had in 2016 told that the Ministry of Social Justice had drafted a bill to decriminalise begging and rehabilitate beggars and homeless people. But, later the proposal to amend the legislation was dropped. A law to decriminalize begging necessary.