NHRC, India issues advisory for the protection and rehabilitation of impoverished, uneducated children, women, and differently-abled individuals engaged in begging

Press release

National Human Rights Commission

New Delhi: 5th July, 2024

NHRC, India issues advisory for the protection and rehabilitation of impoverished, uneducated children, women, and differently-abled individuals engaged in begging

Advisory focuses on eight key areas for action by the Centre and State Governments and UT Administrations

Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MoSJE) advised to have a centralized database of persons engaged in beggary identified on fixed parameters with the assistance of Municipal Corporations and government agencies

Recommended the drafting of a National Policy on the protection and rehabilitation of individuals involved in beggary to prepare and implement welfare schemes for them with targeted financial assistance, vocational training, poverty alleviation, and employment opportunities with continuous monitoring and supervision

A sociological and economic impact assessment to legislate an anti-human trafficking law to curb any racket of forced begging also recommended

Start awareness campaigns, both digitally and in the print media, to ensure that the social menace of organized/ forced begging is eradicated in all forms

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), India has issued an Advisory to the the Centre and State governments and UT Administrations to develop strategies aimed at eliminating the need for begging and enhancing the quality of life for those involved in it. Issuing the Advisory, the Commission has noted that despite a number of initiatives and welfare programmes implemented by both the Centre and State Governments, the issue of begging persists across the country. As per the 2011 census, there were more than 413 thousand beggars and vagrants in India. They include women, children, transgender and elderly who are forced to beg for survival.

The Commission has also noted that the organized groups often manipulate vulnerable children into begging, to enrich these groups’ leaders. In some cases, individuals engaged in beggary are abducted and coerced into begging, generating substantial amount of money for their captors. Further, as a result of societal neglect, physically challenged individuals have no choice but to depend on others for survival and daily sustenance.

Therefore the Commission has felt that to address a gamut of issues surrounding the practice of begging, a comprehensive approach is needed. It should include social welfare interventions, access to basic facilities, strong legal frameworks and enforcement to protect their rights and help them reintegrate into society.

The Advisory has been divided into eight key areas of action by the concerned authorities to address the cause of begging. These include survey, identification, mapping and preparing data bank, Rehabilitation of individuals engaged in beggary, healthcare, education, Legal and policy framework, Collaboration with NGOs, civil society organizations, private sector, charitable trusts, etc., Access to financial services, awareness generation, sensitization and monitoring.

The detailed advisory may be accessed from the NHRC, India website www.nhrc.nic.in or click on link: https://nhrc.nic.in/sites/default/files/advisory_begging.pdf

Some of the recommendations, among others, are as follows;

• Draft a National Policy for the protection and rehabilitation of individuals involved in beggary to prepare and implement welfare schemes for them with targeted financial assistance, vocational training, poverty alleviation and employment opportunities and continuous monitoring and supervision by executive actions for implementation of those frameworks;

• Undertake a sociological and economic impact assessment to legislate an anti-human trafficking law to curb any racket of forced begging. This law should identify beggary as one of the root causes of human trafficking and insert penal offences against the perpetrators;

• A standardized survey format to be developed by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MoSJE) for collecting detailed information with the help of Municipal Corporations or government agencies to build a national database of individuals engaged in begging with their physical, mental, and social status, which should be updated regularly on an online portal/ dashboard accessible to all the stakeholders;

• Ensure that upon completion of the identification process of individuals engaged in beggary, they are brought to shelter homes (as mentioned under the SMILE Scheme - Support for Marginalized Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise Scheme) located within cities or districts, and are registered as residents and issued identity cards by the relevant departments/ nagarpalikas/ gram panchayats in the states/ union territories (UTs) or authorized agencies;

• Ensure that the shelter homes offer them essential services including proper boarding and lodging facilities, clothes, healthcare, Aadhar cards, Ration cards and assistance with opening bank accounts. If necessary, authorities may organize camps to issue and disseminate information on Aadhar Cards, Ration Cards, Ayushman Cards, Jan-Dhan account schemes and benefits of other welfare schemes;

• Identify avenues such as religious congregations to organize awareness generation camps for discouraging begging, and disseminate information on the various government welfare schemes and employment opportunities including those for self-employment;

• The beneficiaries are to also be educated, sensitized and provided necessary assistance to avail benefits of different schemes/services provided by the Centre, States/ UT such as those related to food security, health, housing, financial security, drinking water, cooking gas, electricity, etc;

• Particular emphasis to be placed on catering to the needs of children, women, the elderly, persons with disabilities (PwDs) and those addicted to substance abuse involved in begging, as per the already existing provisions of law applicable to these specific groups;

• Ensure that the shelter homes provide mental health counseling, de-addiction and rehabilitation services to support the process of the rehabilitation of the people involved in begging. Shelter homes may avail facilities of Mobile Mental Health Units (MMHUs) for mental health services;

• The residents are to be linked with government schemes for medical assistance and insurance, such as the Universal Health Insurance Scheme (UHIS), National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana, and AYUSH;

• Register and enroll all children between the ages of 6-14 years involved in begging in government or private schools under the Right to Education Act, 2009 as mandated under Article 21 A of the Constitution of India to ensure free and compulsory education to all children;

• Provide skill development and vocational training to residents of shelter homes according to their abilities, capabilities, and preferences in collaboration with government-recognized vocational centres to enable them to live a life of dignity; shelter homes may reach out to corporate to facilitate such partnerships;

• NGOs/ civil society groups may assist the residents of shelter homes in forming Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and assist in accessing loans for self-employment;

• The State to explore the possibility of employment opportunities for the individuals engaged in begging, once they have been trained or imparted skills by the government-recognized institutes;

• The State to provide them with financial assistance for their future sustenance by involving the banking sector. To ensure this, the State may also consider providing incentives or subsidies to banks for lending to these residents/ SHGs;

• The State and municipal authorities to establish an outreach & mobilization mechanism to sensitize individuals engaged in beggary on their rights and entitlements to prevent their exploitation;

• The State to also reach out to the common public to create awareness on the welfare of individuals involved in begging to seek their cooperation in the implementation of protection mechanisms;

• The State/ UTs administration to start campaigns, both digitally and in the print media, to ensure that the social menace of organized/ forced begging is eradicated in all forms. To achieve this goal, anti-begging cells (organized and unorganized) may be initiated by involving various stakeholders including NGOs/CSOs and human rights defenders.

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