A Public Audit of

Beggary Relief System

Compiled by Srivathsa K & Santosh P. Nargund

July 21, 2010

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So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every person a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them. Vivekanand Foreword
Democracy Survives on the organised institutions of Civil Society exploiting the potential of the application of simple tools. The year 2005 ushered a new democratic right to citizens of our country. Right to Information widely regarded as one of the important legislations passed by our parliament since independence. It is one of best Transparency laws in the world. It places an onus on the government to progressively make its functioning and dealings comprehensible to the public. Along with transparency, RTI empowers civil society to demand accountability from service providers. A combination of the both these along with Peoples Participation ensures that planning done by experts in the government are properly enforced precisely to ensure the best use of the Exchequer the tax payers hard earned money. Usually existing laws and rules are often not enforced and we see violations everywhere. We need delivery output efficiency. Thus we have a last mile problem. Social audits on Public Services are attracting attention everywhere. RTI provides our civil society huge quantum of information. The credibility of this information cannot be questioned, as the source is Government Statistics. The Ability and Willingness of Public Agencies to respond have varied. Some of these agencies may have their own constraints, but the rigidity and unresponsiveness of government is also exposed. The era of e-governance has already arrived and RTI once again by stipulating Proactive Declarations revised every year at Regular intervals is one good example. A few young friends under the banner of Rashtrotthan Sankalp, who are professionally Technical persons with a motto of Evil Triumphs When Good People Sit Quiet have spent all their leisure hours and carried out a social audit using exclusively RTI. They have gone deep into studying the problem of beggary relief and best use of the tax paid by all of us as Beggary cess. The Audit is an eye opener. The recommendations and suggestions are really excellent .The increased sharing of this knowledge in the form of Social Audit is not a ritual but force of citizens feedback, a fight for the Survival of Democracy itself. The Stakes of this survival are too high for all of us and we shall never give up, building a strong foundation to improve Public Accountability and Performance in our country. We all hope to see many more such Social Audits carried out in diverse sectors as a force for change in the minds of our Political Leaders and Administrators. The dream of our Father of Nation to usher Ram Rajya is sure to become a reality. N Vikramsimha , Trustee , Mahithi Hakku Adhyayana Kendra, Bengalooru

Note
This audit was undertaken and is presented with the sole intention of bringing positive changes in our system and society. No insult, harm or derogation is meant to any person or institution, whatsoever. All comments are made in good faith and should be construed as constructive criticism, where applicable.

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Contents
Abbreviations Beggary ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 3 4 4 6 7 8 8 10 22 25 25

Why an Audit of Beggary Relief System? ... A Survey ... ... ... ... ... ...

Visits to the CRC and Relief Centre (NPK) ... Visit to the Railway Authorities ... ...

Digging the Information out of the System

The Mess in Administration of the Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975 ... Concluding Observations and Recommendations References ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations
BBMP CMC CRC CRF HDMC KIC KPB Act LRC MUDA NPK p.a. PHC PIO RASTR RDPR RTI RWA TMC TP u/s UDD ULB VP ZP Act'' Rule'' Bruhat Bengalooru Mahanagara Palike City Municipal Council Central Relief Committee Central Relief Fund Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation Karnatak Information Commission Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975 Local Relief Committee Mysore Urban Development Authority Nirashritara Parihara Kendra (Beggary Relief Centre) per annum Primary Health Centre Public Information Officer (under the RTI Act, 2005) RAshtrotthan Sankalp TRust Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Department (Govt. of Karnatak) Right to Information Residents Welfare Association Town Municipal Council Taluk Panchayat / Town Panchayat under section Urban Development Department (Govt. of Karnatak) Urban Local Body Village Panchayat Zilla Panchayat means the Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975 means the Rules for the Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975

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Beggary

63 years after gaining self-rule, millions of our citizens are yet to realise justice social, economic and political. We are yet to give every citizen a decent opportunity to earn his / her basic necessities like food, shelter, health care and education. India still has a long way to go to raise the infrastructure necessary to realise the dream of a happy and prosperous nation. One of the factors that contribute to the building of a happy and prosperous nation is self-reliance self-reliance of its citizens. The uneven distribution of economic resources among the population coupled with illiteracy and lower levels of education have ensured that unemployment and poverty have remained a grim reality over the past 6 decades. The benefits of our economic progress are yet to reach all strata of our society. While we see pockets of prosperity and even luxury, large masses are still undereducated and are under acute poverty.
We are also far away from devising an effective and stable system to provide shelter and relief to citizens struck by misfortune, calamities, disablement due to old-age, sickness or otherwise. As a result of skewed economic policies, uneven wealth/resource distribution, lack of opportunities, economic/social distress, and absence of responsive relief systems, some are forced to means like begging, while others tend to challenge the present system itself and join extreme movements like naxalism. No wonder both these tendencies have made big headlines in recent years and the society and state are grappling with the naxal menace.

Why an Audit of Beggary Relief System?

Culturally, begging has been recommended in our country as a virtuous practice for a person dedicated to learning or advancing knowledge or working for public good or a sanyasi or a student to make a living by begging. And to balance such demands, it is also regarded as a virtuous practice for householders and the common people to donate or provide alms to such sections of the society and also to those in real need. However as society degenerated and economy crumbled in the previous millennium, more and more of the people slipped to the practice of living by begging due to extreme poverty. Also, as virtues were lost gradually, lazy people entered the stream of people making a living by begging. With these able-bodied men and women, with no special objectives of advancement of knowledge or public good taking to begging, begging lost its virtuous position (maligned) in India. Statistics Various surveys in recent times have projected grim figures of beggary in leading cities of India increasingly seen as icons of Indias newfound prosperity. According to surveys by different Voluntary Organizations, Mumbai has over 3 lakh beggars, whereas Delhi has 60,000. While one in every 354 citizens of Hyderabad is a beggar, Kolkata has 75,000 and Bengalooru has 56,000 of them [Ref. 3]. A survey done by Delhi University for the Delhi government found that over 2/3rd of the beggars were able-bodied men, 71% were driven by poverty. IndiaToday.in reports that 85% beggars have no information about beggar homes (relief centres). It is found that 96% of the beggars earn an average daily income between Rs. 80 100, which is more than the income of daily wage earners. At some of the busiest traffic junctions a beggar often makes Rs. 450 in a day. The average bank balance of beggars in Kolkata is Rs. 25,000; and that the worth of Mumbai beggars is Rs. 180 crores. The data is indicative of the fact that beggary has become a lucrative profession where one earns for doing nothing [Ref. 4]. While some hate to beg but have no option, others, prefer the easy money to wages earned by work. Many slipped into beggary due to familial/social problems. There are also instances of begging rackets that force women and children to get into this profession.

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Causes & Effect Circumstances may force a person to resort to acts like begging to sustain himself / herself. For a person to take to begging there are certain push factors like familial, social or economic adversities, poverty, unemployment, disability, destitution, old age and drug addiction. There are also certain pull factors like easy source of income. However, begging is an insult to the self-respect of a person. Beggary is the most inhumane condition a person can be in. Persons compelled to beg under genuine conditions like distress, calamities, destitution, old age, extreme disability, etc. deserve sympathy. However engaging in begging as a profession (for a permanent source of income) to make easy money is disgraceful. In fact, common disablement can also be no cause of begging to a person with self-respect. There are innumerable examples of handicapped people taking up complex professions. Another aspect, which encourages beggary, is from the 'supply' side. Helping fellow human beings and indulging in charity is a noble act and it needs encouragement. However, many people think that giving alms to beggars will earn them virtue and wash-away their misdeeds (paapa karmas). While others simply take pity to the apparent condition of the man / woman presenting a sorry face and begging. Either of these things is not helping anybody. In fact finding easy money by begging makes people lazy. And also as will be seen later in this report as a finding of our survey, many people overcome by laziness choose begging as a profession to make easy bucks. That is why it is common to see even able men and women begging. Moreover, donating a rupee or two will hardly help to provide long-lasting relief and rehabilitation to a person overcome by circumstances. Such a person can only seek relief through a way to rehabilitate himself / herself by taking back to earning his necessities himself and leading a life of self-respect and contentment. The aspects discussed in the preceding paragraphs and our own day-to-day experiences with beggars indicate that this problem has several facets and that several factors are at work. It is with this understanding that various laws on beggary have been framed. Our laws dealing with beggary date back to the pre-independence era. These laws, generally, while prohibiting beggary, provide for relief of the citizens taken to beggary and raise taxes for the relief envisaged under these laws. Such laws seek to address the issue of beggary by appreciating the urge of citizens to help their fellow citizens in distress and by channelising citizens' money towards relief and rehabilitation of beggars and discouraging indiscriminate alms-giving. The Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975 is one such progressive law. The Law The KPB Act is "an Act to prohibit persons from resorting to begging and to provide for the detention, training and employment of beggars, for the custody, trial and punishment of beggar offenders and for the relief and rehabilitation of such persons in the State of Karnataka" [Ref 1]. In practice, however, the laws are not sympathetic to destitution and the unfortunate. A person is provided relief only when he starts begging! The society and state are reactive and not proactive in providing relief. The anti-beggary laws prohibit giving alms to the beggar. The idea is in principle to discourage beggary and to make civil society sensitive towards beggary. The one time help has proved to be of little help to the beggars. Indiscriminate alms-giving is neither good for the giver, nor for the receiver. Theres a need to replace the philanthropic approach to the issue of beggary with a therapeutic approach and rehabilitative work. In spite of the prohibition on beggary in force for nearly half a century and the tax being collected for relief of beggars, we see beggars all over. This is a betrayal to the citizens by the administration. Citizens are bound to pay the tax, which totals to crores of rupees every year, without any signs of effective handling of the issue of beggary or the implementation of the laws

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seriously. This warrants public action to investigate and audit the entire system of beggary relief and effect corrections where necessary. RASTR Effort It is in this light that Rashtrotthan Sankalp (RASTR) undertook this study of facets of Beggary, the society and state's response to it and an audit of the Beggary Relief System mainly as enabled by the Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975 and present it before the citizens. This study, which began in Jan. 2008, is based on data collected till June 2010 and is limited by the resources at the disposal of RASTR, and the response of and access to various public agencies and the information available with them.

A Survey
To ascertain the facts on begging and understand the Beggars' point of view, Associates of RASTR carried out an on-site survey of beggars and beggary at different places in Bengalooru. The main areas covered were Avenue Road, Majestic area, BMTC / Kempegowda bus-stand, Gandhinagar area, City Railway Station, etc. The following observations were made after the survey: Beggars move freely. People complain about beggary but most continue to give money to beggars. Vast majority of the citizens are not aware of the prohibition on beggary and are ignorant of the law for the relief of beggars or the tax they pay for management of beggars' relief. Police ignore the beggars and do not arrest them on sighting them as required by the Act. U/s 23 of the Act, beggary is a cognisable offence. As such, every police official or other designated officials of the state are required to arrest a beggar at sight and transfer him / her to a receiving center. Beggars roam freely in the railway stations and trains. As per railway laws, beggars are required to be fined and arrested by the Railway authorities and handed over to the State police to be taken to relief centres. Many beggars speak of their 'rights'. They have Voters I-Cards and Ration Cards! Some made covert threats to us invoking their 'contacts' with goonda elements including political bosses. www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 6 email: info@rastr.in

Very few beggars may be forced to beg due to adversities in life. Many have made it their profession. And would not quit it even when given an opportunity. Many earn as much as Rs. 500 a day! Entire families are into begging, with each member making Rs. 200 - 500 a day. Beggars are contemptuous of the Relief Centres. They have a good network. They disappear from the streets as soon as the Relief Centres' officials are on rounds to arrest them. On being arrested, they are also confident of coming out soon and restarting to beg. They are confident of doing so with the help of their organized groups, supported by lawyers and leaders, including political leaders.

Visits to the CRC and Relief Centre (NPK)

Members of Rashtrotthan Sankalp visited the Beggary Relief Center several times. The first time, a letter was presented to the Secretary of the Central Relief Committee (CRC). Following important requests were made to the government. The implementation of the Act has not been satisfactory. Although the Act prohibits beggary in the entire state, beggary continues as though there was no prohibition at all. Hence it was requested to the government to acknowledge the reality by declaring prominent public places like bus-stands, markets, subways, fly-overs, areas around places of worship, etc. in cities and towns as 'Beggary Free Zones and work towards progressively scaling up the prohibition on beggary to the entire state. This step should not be seen a replacement to the prohibition across the state but instead as one leading to the final goal of achieving a beggary-free State. Establish a single window Helpline to report instances of beggary and aid beggary relief. This would greatly facilitate in tackling the bane of beggary as most of the times citizens find it difficult to follow-up instances of beggary despite their earnest desire to help the law enforcement agencies. This way, the authorities could involve public participation in identifying people in distress and take appropriate relief measures efficiently. Initiate efforts to tackle the issue of beggary by effective implementation of the KPB Act from all aspects. Publicise the provisions of the KPB Act and create awareness among public by publishing material by various means like hoardings, advertisements in mass media, engaging civil society, NGOs, RWAs, etc. on various aspects of beggary and the beggary relief system The Secretary was initially quite surprised that well-educated youth were working on social issues. Though he expressed his happiness at this, he was quite reluctant in sharing all the information. We sensed that this department was one of those that the government carried as a burden. Finally, the Secretary appreciated our initiative but showed little inclination to take concrete steps on our suggestions. www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 7 email: info@rastr.in

In another visit to the NPK at Magadi road, Bengalooru, we met the Superintendent. Although he had his own apprehensions about our 'motives', he was kind to have a freewheeling chat with us. He was surprised to learn that we had studied the Act. We walked through the open areas of the NPK and had a glimpse of the inmates. He told us that the inmates who are set free take to begging again and the trainings given, if any, to these people have been in vain. According to an official, Beggary is more of a mental disease than a social problem. He added that people who get into beggary would have made up their mind and would have resolved not to work anymore and would live on the alms given by others. He also gives examples of people with qualifications like M.Sc., MBA, etc., who were arrested and brought in to the NPK. He also stated Crime and beggary are two never dying parts of the society. Both the Secretary and the Superintendent were of the opinion that as long as the people continue to give money, beggary cannot be stropped.

Visit to the Railway Authorities

Sighting beggars in trains and railway stations is common. Section 144(2) of The Railways Act, 1989 prohibits begging in trains and railway stations. People found begging are liable for punishment u/s 144(1) up to one year or a fine of Rs. 2000 or both. Associates of RASTR visited and presented a memorandum to the railway authorities in Bengalooru to press for implementation of these provisions in the Railways Act. However, we were greeted with indifference as expected.

Digging the Information out of the System

When Associates of RASTR began the study, Under the RTI Act, each public authority very little information was available. Few should have made the suo motu declarations reports in the media about some drives to nab beggars were all that was accessible. These u/s 4(1)(b) way back in 2005. It appreas reports presented the usual official position that the 4(1)(b) declarations of CRC and and some stories of how some people entered NPK, Bengalooru were prepared only in beggary. None, however, seemed to critically response to our application. examine the whole issue. The KPB Act and the provisions in the Railways Act were also still veiled (as most laws are to the citizens in India). Thanks to the Internet, we were able to trace soft copies of these Acts. Although these opened our eyes to a whole new scenario that ought to have existed, the Acts themselves could not present an account of the implementation of the provisions, the management of relief and rehabilitation, finances, etc. Moreover, the Rules made under these Acts were yet to be unearthed. Thus began a long drawn quest to dig out the information from our system through a slew of applications under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005. Applications u/s 6(1) of the RTI Act were thus filed with various government agencies including the Social Welfare Department, CRC, NPK Bengalooru, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Department, Urban www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 email: info@rastr.in 8

Development Department (UDD), Bruhat Bengalooru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP), Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) and Hubballi-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC).
Response of Government Departments to RTI Applications
Department / Agency Social Welfare Dept. / CRC Rural Development & Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Dept. Information Sought Response to RTI Applications

Administration of Dragged the hearings in KIC for over 6 months to provide the the KPB Act requested information Beggary Cess Collection and transfer to CRF by VPs Request forwarded to all ZPs; Few ZPs forwarded request to TPs; Out of these very few TPs compiled the information and responded; Many VPs from these TPs responded individually; No response at all from 25 districts No Response Received to first application; Only about 70 ULBs out of 229 in the state responded to the 2nd application Responded within 30 days; However 4-1-b declaration is incomplete and it appears that NPK prepared this only after our request for a copy of the same; Under the RTI Act declaration u/s 4-1-b is mandatory for every public authority. Responded within 30 days; However out of reports sought for 4 years only 3 are provided; Responded within 30 days; However 4-1-b declaration is incomplete and it appears that NPK prepared this only after our request for a copy of the same; Under the RTI Act declaration u/s 4-1-b is mandatory for every public authority. No Response Received Responded within 30 days; Provided details for only 3 years instead of for all years requested; Invented different reasons to avoid providing the information; finally after a year provided the requested information on a stern direction from the KIC;

Beggary Cess Urban Collection and Development Dept transfer to CRF (UDD) by ULBs Self-declaration u/s 4.1.b of the RTI Act, 2005 Annual Administrative Reports Self-declaration u/s 4.1.b of the RTI Act, 2005 Beggary Cess Collection and transfer to CRF Beggary Cess Collection and transfer to CRF

Central Relief Committee (CRC)

Nirashritara Parihara Kendra, Bangalore

BBMP

HDMC

Mysore Urban Beggary Cess Development Collection and Authority (MUDA) transfer to CRF

Although we were able to unearth a sizable amount of information, not all of our queries were answered. The RTI Act was violated by nearly all government authorities, that we approached. In many cases the authorities dragged for months and yielded only after repeated warnings of disciplinary action by the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC). Almost in all cases the information provided was deliberately incomplete. When data was requested from 1975, we received no information or only for a few years. The CRC and NPK, Bengalooru had no suo motu declaration u/s 4(1)(b) of the RTI Act. This study would not have been possible without two things Internet / Information Technology and the RTI Act. Transparency is the key to accountability in a democratic society. And it is true that information is a key enabler of transparency. Thanks to the RTI Act, we could access many details, which are not easily available to the common man, and our study could take a reasonably comprehensive shape that it has now. www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 9 email: info@rastr.in

The Mess in Administration of the Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975

As we started studying the material that was piling up as a result of our research, we discovered that beggary was an issue of concern and action to the government not merely post independence but much before that. The Bombay and Madras Presidencies (under the British rule) had laws prohibiting beggary. So had the princely states of Mysore and Hyderabad. Post independence and post unification of the state the Government of Karnataka consolidated all the beggary laws then in force in different parts of the state and enacted the KPB Act in 1975. Study of the KPB Act and its Rules revealed that a very methodical system to deal with beggary, and management of relief and rehabilitation of beggars ought to have existed. We now discuss important provisions of the KPB Act and its Rules, and examine their implementation.
Nirashritara Parihara Kendras (NPKs) / Relief Centres in Karnatak
Place / District Contact Information of NPKs Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Magadi Main Road, Bengalooru-560091 Ph.: 080-23481580 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Afsalpur Road, Vijapur Ph.: (95)8352-271665 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Baddihatti, Aaladahalli Road, Kaubjar, Ballary Ph.: 9886612469 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Mukkam post, Machche Taluk, Belagavi Ph.: (95)831-2930217 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Near Railway Station, Sadanandayya Layout, Chitradurga Ph.: (95)8194-220258 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Turuchigatta Gomal, Belavanur Post, Davanagere Ph.: (95)8192-260271 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Biddapur Colony, Gabbur Road, Gulburga Ph.: (95)8472-251369 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Rayapur, Hubballi-Dharawad Ph.: (95)836-2224028 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Tamak Post, National Highway Bypass, Kolar Ph.: (95)8152-210167 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Jyoti nagar, Mysooru Ph.: (95)821-2473767 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Pachchanadi Grama, Vaamanjur Post, Mangalooru, Dakshin Kannada Ph.: (95)824-2482469 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Aashapur Road, Near Doordarshan Kendra, Raichur Ph.: (95)8532-231568 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Tyavarekoppa, Sagar Road, Koteganangur Post, Shivamogga Ph.: (95)8182-233713 Superindent, Nirashritara Parihara Kendra Basavaraj Building, Heggere, Siddharth Nagar, Tumkur Ph.: (95)816-2298286

The Act defines a beggar as any person other than a child who: solicits or receives alms in a public place whether or not under any pretence such as singing, dancing, fortune telling, performing tricks, or selling articles having no visible means of subsistence, wanders about or remains in any public place in such condition or manner as makes it likely that he exists by soliciting or receiving alms allows himself to be used as an exhibit for the purpose of soliciting or receiving alms exposes or exhibits with the object of obtaining or extorting alms, any sore, wound, deformity or disease whether of a human being or of an animal enters any private premises for the purpose of soliciting or receiving alms;

Sl. No.

1 Bengalooru

2 Vijapur

3 Ballary

4 Belagavi

5 Chitradurga

6 Davanagere

7 Gulburga HubballiDharwad

9 Kolar

10 Mysooru

11 Mangalooru

12 Raichur

13 Shivamogga

A religious mendicant 14 Tumkur licensed by the CRC or a person soliciting alms in performance of any religious vow as sanctioned by custom or religion www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 10 email: info@rastr.in

or a student collecting alms for the prosecution of his / her studies is exempted from the prohibition provided they collect alms without being a nuisance. Ill prepared to Start The KPB Act was first applied in 1976 to 10 cities: Bengalooru, Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad, Mysooru, Mangalooru, Gulburga, Davanagere, Shivamogga, Vijapur and Ballary. In 1997, the prohibition was extended to the entire state. In 2000, NPKs were started in Kolar, Tumkur, Chitradurga and Raichur. Sec. 1(3) of the Act clearly states that the provisions of the Act shall not be brought into force in any area unless the state government is satisfied that suitable facilities exist for the relief of the beggars of that area. However, the term suitable facilities is neither described in the Act nor in its Rules. To a RTI query on what constituted suitable facilities as defined in Sec. 1 of the Act, the CRC provided no clear answer. Answering another query, the CRC said that steps are being taken to provide facilities in NPKs in stages. To yet another query regarding number of relief centres opened without suitable facilities, the CRC replied that the NPKs in Tumkur, Kolar and Chitradurga were started in rented premises. This poses a question on the decision of the government to enforce the Act to the entire state. How did the government satisfy itself that suitable facilities existed for the relief of beggars, without defining the term itself? This topic is even more relevant because till date the facilities available for relief and rehabilitation of beggars are incapable of meeting the annual requirement for the same. For instance, the Infrastructure / Assets of NPKs Bengalooru NPK has Sl. Place / Land Dormitory School Training PHC Vehicle Others a capacity to house No. (Acre) District Centre to Arrest about 900 inmates at Beggars 1 tractor, a time. This has bore-wells, remained constant for 163 7 Yes Yes Yes 1 1 Bengalooru Office bldg., decades. The number Staff qrtrs. of beggars arrested 1 bore-well, 2 Vijapur 4 Yes No No No 1 Office bldg. every year is much 1 bore-well, more than this 2 Yes No No No No 3 Ballary Office bldg. capacity and nowhere 1 bore-well, 39 2 No No No 1 4 Belagavi near the number of Office bldg. beggars estimated in Rented 10 No No No No NA 5 Chitradurga building the city as indicated 1 bore-well, earlier. Hence, every 10 2 No No No 1 6 Davanagere Office bldg. few months the 1 bore-well, 7 Gulburga 4 2 No No No 1 inmates are released Office bldg. to accommodate the Hubballi1 bore-well, 8 10 2 No No No 1 Office bldg. Dharwad new ones arrested, Rented regardless of whether 9 Kolar 23 No No No No NA building the old ones are 1 bore-well, 10 Yes No No No 1 trained and 10 Mysooru Office bldg. rehabilitated or not. 1 bore-well, 2 Yes No No No 1 11 Mangalooru Office bldg. Hence most of the Rented beggars released 12 Raichur 10 No No No No NA building take back to begging, 1 bore-well, 29 Yes No No No 1 mocking the whole 13 Shivamogga Office bldg. system of beggary Rented 14 Tumkur 2 No No No No NA building relief. www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 11 email: info@rastr.in

Pathetic Infrastructure & Staffing The infrastructure available to enforce the KPB Act is another point in question. Information available with us indicates that handsome land is available to most NPKs in the state. However, 34 years after the Act was enforced in 10 Cities and 13 years after the Act was extended to the entire state: Less than half the districts in the state have Relief centres (NPKs) Own buildings for 3 out of 14 NPKs are still under construction. No NPK in the state, except at Bengalooru, has a School, Training Centre or PHC. 5 out of 14 NPKs do not have a single vehicle to arrest beggars. The Bengalooru NPK, which sees an inflow of about 1300 - 1600 beggars every year, has also only one vehicle. Another fact shows that the government is ill-prepared or hardly making honest efforts to implement the KPB Act effectively is its failure to staff the CRC and the NPKs with the sanctioned strength of officials. As per the Administrative Report of the CRC for 2008-09, of all the posts sanctioned for beggary relief offices across the state, 54% were vacant. Reports of earlier years show the same trend.
The Bengalooru NPK had 308 acres of land in 1944 when it was started. Now 166 acres remains. Even in this land the Government has grand plans to develop a 'Mini Lalbagh' and relocate the NPK to a new place, details of which are not available.

The sorry state of affairs may be appreciated from the fact that the post of the Accounts Officer and that of the Office Superintendent in the Posts under CRC and the NPKs (Apr. 1, 2009) CRC were indicated as vacant in the 4(1)(b) Group Sanctioned Vacant % Vacant declaration of the CRC made in Dec. 2009. Group A 1 0 0 The duties of the Accounts Officer include management of the accounts of the CRC Group B 15 7 47 (which effectively means accounts of Group C 164 91 55 beggary relief in the entire state), Group D 50 27 54 management of the annual budget, and Total 230 125 54 release of funds for beggary relief. The post of Head Warder of the Relief department is vacant in the Bengalooru NPK. Making things worse, 10 out of 17 (59%) posts of Warders in the Relief department and 12 out of 18 (67%) posts of Warder in the Receiving department are vacant. The story continues with the posts of the Agriculture Officer, Binding Instructor, and the lone Dhobi and Ayah also vacant. The Bengalooru NPK has posts of just 2 Cooks and 2 Watchmen sanctioned for strength of more than 900 inmates at any time. With this Santioned / Vacant Posts state-of-affairs in the Relief Center in the 250 capital, the situation in the other NPKs in the Sanctioned Vacant state is left to the public's imagination. Under 200 Rule 8(iv)(a), the Secretary of the CRC is 150 authorised to make all appointments to posts 100 sanctioned by the government.
50 0 Group A Group B Group C Group D Total

Law Violated in letter & Spirit

Section 4 of the KPB Act provides for constitution and powers of the CRC. The Act lays down that the CRC shall constitute of 3 official and 4 non-official members. Rule-4 to the Act, however, specifies that the CRC shall www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 12 email: info@rastr.in

consist of not less than 15 members and not exceeding 30 members. Even ignoring these inconsistencies the government has been in the red. Far from a strength of 7 or 15 whichever is correct, the government has appointed no more than 4 members to the CRC for years. All the 4 members are IAS / KAS officers and the CRC has absolutely no representation from the public, civil society, social scientists or experts in relevant fields like management or technology, rendering it opaque to any public scrutiny or dynamism whatsoever. Local Relief Committees with not less than 8 members and not more than 12 members are to be created by the CRC to administer the Act in different areas. The District Commissioners act as the Chairmen of the respective Local Committees. The District Social Welfare Officer is the Member Secretary of the LRCs. We could not include in this study the working of LRCs or NPKs other than the one at Bengalooru. However, our associates from Hubballi-Dharwad report irregularities and mismanagement at the NPK there. Officials Dont Care Sec. 23 makes all offences under the KPB Act cognizable. Also as per Rule 47, a police officer is required to arrest any person found begging and move him to the nearest receiving centre or arrest any person abetting beggary. However, it is no secret that begging continues right in the presence of police and the police more often than not turn a blind eye to beggars. To a query under the RTI Act about the number of people arrested for begging by the police every year, the CRC provided no answer. The government may authorise other officers to arrest beggars on sight. It is understood that officers of the rank of Tahashildar and above are authorised to arrest beggars and send them to receiving centres.

Beggars in Relief Centres of Karnataka (1976 - 2008)

6500

Number of Beggars in Relief Centres

6000 5500 5000 4500 4000 3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0
19 76 -77 19 78 -79 19 80 -81 19 82 -83 19 84 -85 19 86 -87 19 88 -89 19 90 -91 19 92 -93 19 94 -95 19 96 -97 19 98 -99 20 00 -01 20 02 -03 20 04 -05 20 06 -07

Total

Bengalooru

Rest of state

Year

A person arrested for begging may be sentenced for detention extending from 1 to 3 years by the magistrate. From the above chart and table the following observations are made: There are large fluctuations in the total number of inmates in all relief centres of Karnatak between successive years. For instance, in 1979-80 there were about 3000 inmates all www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 13 email: info@rastr.in

over state, which fell steeply to only 1000 (67% decrease) in the next year i.e. 1980-81. So was there a drop in beggary in a single year? The answer may be no, as the total inmates all over the state climbed to nearly 2200 the very next year in 1981-82, peaking back to 3000 in 1984-85. Then for few years it increased and decreased every alternate year. Generally, it kept

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falling and reached a low of 1700 in 1990-91. Thereafter, it started rising and peaked to about 4800 in 1994-95. The very next year it sharply fell to 2800 (42% fall). It further continued its slide to reach a low of about 2300 in 1997-98. From there it again alternated with ups and downs. Then in 2001-02 it reached nearly 6100, a jump of 167% in 2 years!!. Then again the saga of fluctuations continued until it dropped to about 5000 in 2007-08. The number of beggars lodged in the Bengalooru relief center (per year) remained stuck at about 2000 even in 2007-08, which it was 34 years back in 1976-77. A point to be noted here is that the capacity of the Bengalooru centre is only 900 at any given point of time. Beggars are released to intake more beggars arrested. Hence the total beggars incoming in the Bengalooru relief centre is around 2000 per year always. Similarly the chart only shows the number of beggars brought into a particular centre in any particular year and not its capacity, which may be much smaller. There does not seem to be any capacity addition or the numbers fail to generate any trust in the situation of beggary in the state. Post 2001-02, there's a spurt in the number of beggars brought into the relief centres. However, the capacity may not have undergone any additions. The Davanagere centre, which had 74 beggars in 1997-98, had not a single beggar in three successive years between 1998-2001. In 2001-02 again it had 279 beggars. In 2001-02, four centres Hubballi-Dharwad, Mysooru, Mangalore and Shivamogga had not a single beggar. In the following year, they each had not less than 159 beggars. Even though the figures above show big numbers, the same people may have been arrested and detained in NPKs again and again over the years and yet they would not have reformed. If a person is re-arrested for begging, he may be detained in a relief centre up to 3 years. An absconding beggar or a person, who takes to begging on being discharged from a relief centre, may be sentenced to 3 months' imprisonment. Any person employing people in begging or abetting beggary is liable to rigorous imprisonment extending to 3 months. Wheres the Training?

Training to Inmates As part of relief measures, the beggars arrested and housed in the NPKs must 6000 Beggars Arrested be provided with training in various 5000 Inmates Trained vocations, so that they can make a new 4000 beginning on their release and attain 3000 self-reliance. Training in itself is however 2000 of not much practical use, unless the 1000 inmates are assisted to acquire jobs or to 0 start their own enterprise. The track 8 6 9 record of training provided to the inmates 5-0 8-0 7-0 00 00 00 2 2 2 is dismal. Only 11% of beggars in the relief centres of Karnatak attended any kind of training in 2008-09. In 2005-06 14% of beggars living in the NPKs in the state attended training, while in 2007-08, the figure stood at 18%.
Fiscal Slips Sec. 30 of the Act has created a fund called the Central Relief Fund (CRF), which consists of: subscriptions and donations grants from government www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 15 email: info@rastr.in

cess on designated items grants from local bodies, and private or public institutions fines recovered under the Act receipts from other sources The primary source of the CRF is the cess levied as surcharge at the rate of 3% on tax on lands and buildings (property tax) collected by the local bodies. In a reply to a RTI query, The CRC stated that the Beggary Cess is levied, collected and transferred by local bodies. The Administrative Report of the CRC for 2008-09 also makes the same claim. This is proven to be a complete misrepresentation of facts by the discussion that follows. The CRC did not respond to the query asking the duration within which the beggary cess collected by the local bodies is to be transferred to the CRF. The issue of collection of beggary cess and its transfer to the CRF gives enough indication of the maladministration of the KPB Act. The KPB Act came into force in 1975 in 10 City Corporations. The Karnatak government directed these 10 City Corporations in 1976 to collect the beggary cess and deposit the same into the CRF. The prohibition on beggary was extended to the entire state in 1997. In 2000, the government ordered all local bodies (Panchayats, Municipalities and Corporations) in the state to collect the beggary cess and deposit the same into the CRF. However, no local body has ever cared to either collect it properly or deposit the collected cess into the CRF. Most city corporations have been collecting the cess for more than 2 decades, but never transferred the amount to CRF for beggars' relief, on time or in full.

Beggary Relief: Income & Expenditure (1975 - 2007)

1500 1400 1300 1200 1100 1000 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0
6 8 0 2 75 -7 77 -7 79 -8 81 -8

Income / Expenditure (Lakh Rs.)

Income (Beggary Cess)

Expenditure

85 -8

83 -8

87 -8

89 -9

91 -9

93 -9

95 -9

00 0

03 -0

97 -9

01 -0

05 -0 20

6 20

99 -2

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

19

Year

The above chart shows the income and expenditure of the CRC as provided by it in response to a query under the RTI Act. No cess was either collected or deposited into the CRF between 1975 and 1978. The income of the CRC has seen wide fluctuations. The amount deposited in the CRF has never been increasing consistently year on year. Instead it has alternatively increased and decreased over the years. In some instances it has nosedived by as much as 50 - 90% year on year as in 1981-82, 1993-94 or 1999-2000. Associates of RASTR had filed applications under the RTI Act with government agencies to estimate the status of beggary cess collection and its transfer to the CRF. While the UDD failed www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 16 email: info@rastr.in

19

20

20

07 -0

to respond to two applications, the BBMP violated the RTI act by not caring to respond. The MUDA played all tricks to avoid providing details of its mess-up of the beggary cess. HDMC replied only with partial information. Among the ULBs, the BBMP led the default with Rs. 23 crores in arrears as on Oct. 2007. Only about 70 ULBs out of 229 in the state responded to our queries under RTI Act. A city corporation like HDMC collects as much as Rs. 43 lakhs in beggary cess in a year from citizens. But this amount never gets transferred to the CRF for actual beggary relief. By 2006-07 HDMC sat on an arrears of Rs. 1.61 crores collected as beggary cess for decades since the KPB Act was 'enforced'. As on 2008-09 HDMC owed more than Rs. 2.53 crores to the CRF. 8 ULBs of Hassan district owed over Rs. 68.31 lakhs in arrears to the CRF at the end of 2008-09. While the ULBs in Kolar district had nearly Rs. 40 lakhs in an arrears to the CRF. In response to our applications many ULBs promised to remit the arrears into the CRF and henceforth collect and deposit into CRF the beggary cess promptly. Although, Mysooru was among the first 10 cities where the KPB Act was implemented in 1975, the local authority has not collected the beggary cess for 14 years till 1989. Even the amount collected since 1989 was never deposited to the CRF. As per its own accounts, MUDA owed over Rs. 23 lakhs to beggary relief as on 29-Sep-2008. A special meeting of the MUDA was convened 3 weeks after the filing of our RTI application, in which a justification for non-transfer of the collected beggary cess for nearly 20 years was invented. MUDA has replied stating that

as a relief centre for beggars was being constructed in Mysooru, and that MUDA has set aside certain amount for that purpose, the cess is not deposited with the CRF!! Kudos to the 20-year www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 17 email: info@rastr.in

vision of MUDA. However, it would be well to remind MUDA that a centre already exists in Mysooru. Nothing, of course, was ever heard later of this fantasy philanthropic measure of MUDA. As such it must stop fooling the public and just do its statutory duty by collecting and depositing the cess with CRF regularly. Nearly half the ZPs in the state did not respond to the RTI application requesting information on Beggary Cess. There are nearly 5650 VPs in the Karnatak. However, except a few Panchayats in Kodagu District, no VP in the state has collected the beggary cess. Many seemed totally unaware of any such provision and 'promised' to collect from subsequent years. Some district administrations came into action only as a result of our RTI applications.
Beggary Cess Collection: Village Panchayats
ZP Beggary Cess Status The ZP responded evasively by neither stating the year from which the beggary cess was collected or by disclosing the amount collected till date. It is concluded from the response of the ZP that the cess has not been collected by the VPs as required by law. Beggary cess not collected by any VP in the district; Few VPs responded and 'assured' to collect the cess and deposit in the CRF from 2008-09 No Response Received Beggary cess not collected by any VP in the district; Savadatti & Ramdurg TPs have directed the VPs to collect the cess from 2008-09

Bagalkote

Bengalooru Rural Bengalooru Urban Belagavi Ballary Bidar Vijapur

No Response Received No Response Received Beggary cess not collected by any VP in the district Only Kollegal TP responded and acknowledged that the beggary cess is Chamrajnagar not collected by the VPs. Chikmagalur Beggary cess not collected by any VP in the district Chikballapur No Response Received Chitradurga No Response Received Dakshina No Response Received Kannada Davanagare No Response Received Dharwad No Response Received Gadag No Response Received Gulburga Only Aland and Shahpur TPs responded and acknowledged that the beggary cess is not collected by the VPs; Aland TP 'assured' that the cess would be collected and deposit in the CRF from 2008-09 No VP has collected the beggary cess; TPs have directed the VPs in

2008 to collect the beggary cess and deposit into the CRF. We estimate the No Response Received collectible beggary Haveri VPs under the 3 TPs of the district collected the beggary cess for 1 or 2 cess across all local Kodagu years but hardly deposited any money in the CRF authorities in the Kolar No Response Received Only Kushtagi & Koppal TPs responded and acknowledged that the state to be around Koppal beggary cess is not collected by the VPs. Rs. 12 - 15 crores. No VP has collected the beggary cess; Following a direction from the The government Mandya RDPR, the Mandya ZP has directed the VPs in Feb. 2008 to collect does not have any the beggary cess and deposit into the CRF. No Response Received figures for these. Mysooru Only Raichur TP responded and acknowledged that the beggary cess is However, the actual Raichur not collected by the VPs. cess trickling into Ramanagar No Response Received the CRF is neither No VP has collected the beggary cess; The ZP has issued directions consistent nor has Shivamogga to all VPs to collect the beggary cess and deposit into the CRF only after the RTI application from the Associates of RASTR reached the reached this figure ZP. any time in history. Tumkur Beggary cess not collected by any VP in the district The local bodies are Udupi No Response Received either not collecting Uttara No Response Received this cess properly or Kannada depositing the collected cess to the CRF as required by law. As a result of these lapses:

Hassan

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Penal Measures not for Officials U/s 31(4) of the Act, if a local body fails to make payment of the beggary cess, the government is to direct the person having the custody of the fund of the local authority concerned to pay the amount in priority and such person is bound to comply with the order. Where the amount due from a local authority is not paid in compliance with the order of the government, then such amount is to be recovered in the same manner as an arrear of land revenue.

U/s 162 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964, an arrear of land revenue may, after serving a written notice of demand on the defaulter, be recovered by the Deputy Commissioner or Assistant Commissioner by any one or more of the following processes: by forfeiture of the occupancy or holding in respect of which the arrear is due, u/s 163; by distraint and sale of the defaulters moveable property; by attachment and sale of the defaulters immoveable property; However, we have never heard of any notices ever served by the Commissioners or of any proceedings, whatsoever, against any local authority or the person having the custody of the beggary cess. This easygoing attitude of the CRC and the government suggests that they have forgotten or have chosen to ignore all these provisions. Moreover the process of recovery suggested itself sounds archaic. No Public Scrutiny As per Sec. 32 of the KPB Act, the government may appoint a Board of Visitors in local areas (districts / NPKs) to inspect the institutions situated there in and to report on the working of these institutions and offer suggestions for improvement of the institutions. Such a Board, as per Rule 44, is to visit the institutions at least once in a month and record its observations and suggestions in book kept for the purpose. However, in response to our RTI query, we received no information from CRC about any Board of Visitors for any NPK across the state. The government has failed to create a mechanism to receive suggestions and feedback from the public or civil society. As a result, the beggary relief measures of the government and the administration of the KPB Act are subjected to no public scrutiny or do not benefit from any feedback on its functioning. www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 19 email: info@rastr.in

CRC the Custodian of Beggary Relief As per Sec. 4(7) of the Act, the supervision, direction and control of all matters relating to the administration of relief vest with the CRC. Under Rule-3 the organisation and working of Beggary Relief measures vests in the CRC and the LRCs. The important functions of the CRC (Rule-7) include: Making recommendations to the Government to apply the provisions of the Act to any specified area. As per Sec. 3(1) proviso, the Act shall not be brought into force in any area unless the State Government is satisfied that 'suitable' facilities exist for the relief of the beggars of that area. This is a very import stipulation in the Act, which makes it mandatory for the CRC to create 'suitable' facilities for beggary relief, before jumping to enforce the Act in any area. This is a farsighted provision to prevent the Act from becoming impotent and the collapse of the beggary relief and rehabilitation mechanism. However, the CRC and the government seem to have given little heed to this provision in bringing the Act into force in 10 cities in 1975 and again all over the state in 1997. Issuing licenses to religious to religious mendicants or giving permission for collecting subscriptions for any public institutions or for public good. Establishing Receiving and Relief Centres or declaring any institution as such. Providing for proper management of Receiving and Relief centres and for the proper care and discipline of the inmates therein, directly or through the LRCs.. Determining the strength of the Establishment to be entertained and sanctioned by the government. Sanctioning the staff required by the LRCs. www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 20 email: info@rastr.in

Arranging for collection of donations and subscriptions to the CRF. Considering the Budget to be submitted to the government for approval. Considering audit and inspection reports Only Relief, No Rehabilitation
The PIO of MUDA made every attempt to avoid being present in the KIC hearings,

As per Rule-35, arrangements are to be by making false (?) representation of ill-health made to impart elementary education on every time a summon was sent to him. and to train inmates in agricultural and He succeeded in keeping the deeds of his industrial occupations. The inmates may be assigned work by the Officer-indepartment closeted for nearly a year. charge. For this work, which should not Later it was disclosed that the beggary cess exceed 6 hours a day, the inmates are was collected only since 1989 and even that eligible for a daily wage of Rs. 5. was never deposited to the CRF!!!! However, we have not come across assignments of community service to inmates. All is Well, feels Government, as always The annual accounts of receipts and expenditure, and the budget are required to be made available to the public and are to be published. The Controller, State Accounts Department, is the Auditor of for the CRC and the CRF. The Auditor is required to send the Audit report to the government (Social Welfare Department). Among other things, the audit report must contain the amount of any deficiency or loss, which appears to have been caused by gross negligence or misconduct of any person. U/s 37 of the Act, the CRC is required to submit an Administrative Report every year to the government. Responding to an application under RTI, requesting copies of Administrative Reports for 2000-01, 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2008-09, the CRC stated that the report for 2000-01 is not available. This fact again underlines the careless functioning of the system. In a system where its officers do not value and cannot safeguard their own yearly administrative reports, what relief the destitute can expect? Moreover, the reports just list the facilities provided in the relief centres and do not provide any proactive measures to ameliorate the situation. It may be so because the system is not functioning in that direction. The system has been reduced to one of providing free shelter and food for some time, more in a charitable way than with the intention of providing initial immediate relief and then assist to rehabilitate the destitute. The spirit of the Act itself is defeated. The yearly Administrative Reports of the CRC routinely conclude that all measures are being taken to implement the KPB Act and eliminate beggary, and that the beggary relief measures have been effective. However, the preceding analysis and the day-to-day experience of the public indicate that the beggary relief system has been a mere farce, with no signs of minimisation of beggary or effective measures for beggary relief. The Officer-in-charge of each Relief and Receiving Centre must attend the Centre from 8 am to 12 noon and from 3 pm to 6 pm every day. No Foolproof Database of Beggars Arrested / Rehabilitated The beggars brought into the Receiving Centre are enquired for the necessary particulars. However there is no thorough system of identification such as fingerprints or other biometric parameters enforced to identify repeat cases. As such there is practically no system to identify beggars arrested again and again, except for searching into past records. As such the provisions for repeat cases may hardly be enforced. www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 21 email: info@rastr.in

Relief Provisions Outdated The daily scale of diet as prescribed in Rule-32 seems to meet the generally recommended daily calorie intake. However, the prescribed provisions for clothing, bedding and hygiene leave much to be desired. The inmates in the NPKs are eligible for one set of bedding and two sets of clothing per year. Each inmate is eligible for 28 grams of soapnut powder per week for bathing Every female is eligible for 4 grams of hair oil per week Washing soap provided to each male inmate is 20 gram and to each female inmate is 40 gram per week. Each male inmate eligible for a shave every two weeks. Conflicting Provisions in the Law?? The printed copies of the KPB Act and the Rules have quite a few conflicting provisions, cross references, erroneous numbering and mistakes. Public, Indifferent, as usual When the draft Rules for Prohibition of Beggary, 1975 were published in 1976, no objection or suggestion was received and as such the government proceeded with making the Rules.

Concluding Observations and Recommendations

Beggary continues even after 35 years of the KPB Act coming into force, and several laws on beggary being in force since pre-independence era. This shows the lack of interest on part of the government officials. The above points indicate a systemic failure of the Beggary Relief mechanism. From the facts presented in this report, it is more than evident that successive governments and the CRC as constituted from time to time, which is the executive arm of the state for beggary relief, have failed pathetically in performing their duties towards beggary relief both in letter and spirit as envisaged under the KPB Act. Among other things, the government has failed to: Appoint the complete 15-30 members on the board of the CRC Appoint non-official members on the board of the CRC. Appoint Board of Visitors to the NPKs Secure the collected beggary cess for beggary relief Publicise the Act and create awareness among the people Create helplines for reporting instances of beggary or cases of people in need Ensure transparency and public participation in the functioning of various agencies for Beggary relief Devise proper system of tagging beggars and documentation Provide adequate infrastructure required for an effective Beggary relief system Build necessary social & relief infrastructure in making the prohibition effective Facilitate study and analysis of beggary, destitution and social security Bring amendments necessary to make the Act and the Ban on Beggary effective The major issues with the beggary problem are non-awareness about this whole issue, societys failure in taking cognizance of the entire matter, absence of systematic humanitarian solutions, and failure of government in enforcing the Beggary laws efficiently and in the right spirit. Beggary can be practically eliminated or at least controlled to a great extent if there is will and determination to do so. The Government www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 22 email: info@rastr.in

must stop the farce, which it is continuing in the name of beggary relief for over 35 years, and act to bring about real change on ground. The important steps in these would be implementation of the Act in its true spirit, creating awareness among the public, building the necessary infrastructure, and by appreciating the links between poverty, unemployment, disabilities, destitution and beggary, and devising suitable solutions. Introduce and Foster Efficiency, Transparency & Accountability Infuse principles of efficient management and professionalism and Foster transparency and accountability in the Destitute Relief System. The CRC has only 4 members, all of whom are members in their official capacity. There is no representation of the citizens or of Civil Society in the CRC or Board of Visitors. The successful functioning of any body can be effectively improvised when the voice of citizens is also heard by the executive. This is the main idea behind having Board of Visitors in any department. Appoint the full strength of the CRC, the LRCs and the Boards of Visitors with broad representations from the public, including Civil Society, Management experts, Social Scientists and citizens. The DC must be relieved of his duties to the NPKs. A fulltime Chairman to the LRC dedicated completely to destitute relief at the NPKs must be appointed. Plug Holes in the Cash Box & Ensure Financial Prudence The local bodies have either not collected the beggary cess or have not transferred the collected amount to the CRF. The CRC consisting of top ranking officials from the Social Welfare and Finance Departments of the Government failed to act for over 3 decades and recover the beggary cess. The role of the auditors is questionable on not finding the receivables from local bodies for decades. The government must take immediate measures to recover all arrears of beggary cess and other receivables from all authorities / departments at the earliest. It must also devise mechanism to prevent such total collapse of the funding channels to destitute relief. Encourage Research and Analysis There has been hardly any effort towards scientific study of the issue of destitution and beggary. There are no traces of a conscious effort to study the causes of beggary and ways to rehabilitate beggars in holistic way. The Universities and public Research Institutions have not been entrusted with studies on this matter. Build Adequate Infrastructure & Ensure Rehabilitation not Charitable Relief The system created for Beggary Relief has thus far been struggling to create and maintain the basic prerequisite of infrastructure to house the arrested beggars. Hardly anything is done to provide real relief and rehabilitation in the form of helping the inmates to make new beginnings. The tools of motivation, counseling (by social scientists, psychiatrists, etc.) seem to be totally absent. The current system acts like a filter, which collects the beggars from time to time but does nothing much to prevent the inmates released from taking back to begging. Beggary relief system has been reduced to providing food and shelter for a few months. The entire system is yet run more as measure of charity than a relief and rehabilitation mechanism. Even able-bodied beggars arrested and detained in the Relief centres just 'idle' there. There do not seem to be any plans to engage the inmates in community service projects or any remunerative works. They are fed all the while on public's money. Ensure right kind of rehabilitation to inmates arrested. With several schemes like NREG now in place, begging or idle feeding is no more tolerable. Immediate arrangements must be made to ensure complete literacy, result oriented training and full employment of all able-bodied destitute.

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Distinguish Destitution from Professional Beggary The present system makes no effort to distinguish destitution from beggary. Quite a few of the arrested beggars are old aged and physically disabled. Treating all beggars as criminals does not help. Only the lazy and the professional may be subjected to Correctional sentences. Full sympathy with people hit by bad circumstances But zero tolerance to lazy bumps and professional money-makers thru begging. Injustice to tax-payers, if able-bodied arrested beggars are fed sitting idle; After all it is the hard-earned money of tax-payers which goes into feed idling and lazy people. The public and government have to think very seriously about methods of providing relief to the abandoned (support-less) old aged citizens, without any social security. The approach of the system should not be punitive (but supportive and corrective). Instead it should be sympathetic to the whole issue of destitution and must alleviate the condition of citizens slipped into destitution. The current system recognizes the need of relief only when a person starts begging. Raise/Widen the Security Net There are two aspects to the supply side from the government: One, which is general, even/equitable distribution of income/wealth and creation of opportunities of earning livelihood to all strata of citizenry. The other is specific to providing relief and rehabilitation to sections of society or individuals struck by misfortunes in their lives, calamities, handicaps, disabilities or familial, social or economic trauma. The government along with the civil society has to take comprehensive steps to provide these strata the basic amenities and alternative life support systems so that they can also be discouraged from begging and thereby have their share in the development of the country. The KPB Act targets only beggary, the extreme stage of destitution, when the victim (of destitution) takes to begging. Three-pronged strategy needed: Poverty alleviation, unemployment removal, even distribution of wealth; Destitute Relief Mechanism / system / Social Security net for all citizens; Rehabilitation of able bodied destitute. Inline with this thought a comprehensive legislation which may be called Destitution Relief Act / Social Security Act must be enacted to replace the KPB Act. Eliminate Escape Avenues Serial offenders who have made this a profession have to be punished by making them work. Simply putting them behind bars is not going to make an effect on them. Any person caught begging on release from relief centre must be subjected correctional imprisonment and community service. Remove long drawn 'legal channels/ escape avenues'; Out of the Box Solutions Innovative ways like employing the inmates in maintenance of gardens, roads, and upkeep of civic amenities. Use Technological Aids Introduce biometric identification of beggars arrested. Maintain unified state-wide database of arrested and released beggars. Educate Citizens Take steps to educate people not to help beggars in the wrong direction by giving them alms. Organise sensitising programmes for the citizens, police, and in schools and Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs). Issue messages through Hoardings, News papers, Internet, and other mass media. www.rastr.in Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 24 email: info@rastr.in

Introduce single point helpline through out state. The Bombay Beggars Act, 1945, The Prevention of Beggary Act, 1350F (), The Madras Prevention of Begging Act, 1945, The Mysore Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1944 Citizens: Wake-up The indifference of the citizens is also a cause for the pathetic situation of beggary relief. Citizens have failed in three ways: One, in not holding the administration accountable for so long a period; Two, in encouraging beggary by providing alms even while a Beggary Relief system is in force. There, by failing to debate and push establishment of a broader destitute relief and rehabilitation system and Social Security mechanism. Appoint Committee The government must, at the earliest, constitute a Committee to study the entire gamut of Destitution, Beggary, beggary relief and its administration since the enactment of KPB Act, 1975 and seek recommendations for its efficient handling of beggary, destitution relief, and social security. Such a Committee must investigate / research and among other things: reexamine measures to provide relief to destitute suggest mechanism to provide assistance in shelter, food and health care to the citizens distressed due to old age and disabilities. Suggest amendments to the beggary/destitution relief laws Consider bringing all citizens under a Social Security Net Reconsider the income sources to the CRF with a view to make the income more stable and also to increase its volume. Income tax, etc. instead of / besides beggary cess may be thought of... Submit its report within 3 months

References
1. The Karnataka Prohibition of Beggary Act, 1975 2. Rules for the Prohibition of Beggary, 1975 3. Beggar's banquet, Damayanti Datta, IndiaToday.in, Jan. 25, 2008 http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/3874/Beggar's+banquet.html?page=0 4. Commonwealth Games And A Beggar Free Delhi, Loveleen Kaur, CounterCurrents.org, Sep. 11, 2008, http://www.countercurrents.org/karur110908.htm 5. Our Beggar Problem, Dr. J. M. Kumarappa, 1945,
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=B-j0xHwGt1oC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Acknowledgements
We thank the following for their courtesy, help, and support during this exercise. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Shri Ramaiah, Ex-Secretary, CRC Shri C. B. Gokak, Ex-Superintendent, NPK, Bengalooru Shri Vikram Simha, Mahiti Hakku Adhyayana Kendra, Bengalooru Shri Ashok Halagali, Advocate, Belgaum Shri B. Veeresha, Mahiti Hakku Adhyayana Kendra, Bengalooru Shri Arvindreddy Meiti, Satyashodhana Samiti, Hubballi Dr. Deepak Megeri, Minerva Healthcare and Scientific Pvt. Ltd. Tel: +91.9916135836, +91.9886024990 25 email: info@rastr.in

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Over sixty years have passed since we won freedom after a prolonged, bitter, painful yet courageous and cheerful struggle. The struggle for independence was indeed a high watermark in the history of our civilisation. However, revivalist forces have slowed down in the past few decades. A general decline in moral values is witnessed in todays India. Degeneration is noticeable in almost all walks of life. The diseases of ignorance, selfishness, corruption, intoleration, casteism, communalism, separatism, opportunism, violence and rampant commercialization are on the ascendant. Poverty, hunger, malnourishment, illiteracy and exploitation are still the order of the day. Bad roads, poor water supply & electricity, ever rising prices, impotent justice system, worsening internal & external security, law & order, the I dont care attitude of politicians and above all the indifference of the Common Man towards all this. How long do we allow this disorder to continue?? Should we betray the great sacrifices of our reformers, freedom fighters and revolutionaries? Is this the India dreamt by the Ram Mohan Rays, the Vivekanandas, and the Vidyasagars? Is this the India for which the Lakshmibais, the Bhagat Singhs, the Azads and the Tilaks sacrificed their lives? Is this the India for which the Gandhis, the Nehrus and the Subhash Boses dedicated there lives to?? Do we let things go to the dogs??? Evil Triumphs, When Good People Sit Quiet. Rashtrotthan Sankalp Trust (RASTR) is an initiative of the conscious people of India, who believe in action. Our aim is to cleanse the present rotten social and political system completely. Rashtrotthan Sankalp is a socio-political movement comprising of people from different walks of life. We believe Change is Possible and it can be brought about not by talk alone but by right thought and Action. Rashtrotthan Sankalp is committed to community and national service. Rashtrotthan Sankalp has a comprehensive agenda to do just about anything and everything to rid our civilisation of the malaise that has caught up with it. RASTR provides a platform to all those who are eager to make a difference to the society by their efforts. RASTR joins forces with all like-minded men, women and organisations including the government to strive for the goal of a socially, economically, politically & morally developed India, a transformed, progressive, happy and prosperous India.
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