Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India TV.
In Indore, Madhya Pradesh, an FIR was registered against a beggar for asking for alms and a case was registered against a person for giving alms. In fact, the Ministry of Social Justice of the Central Government has started a pilot project to free ten cities of the country from beggars. Indore is also included in this. Indore administration is now engaged in a campaign to free the city from beggars. Beggars are being caught and explained to them, people are being announced at the intersections not to beg. People are being told that both begging and giving are crimes.
For this crime, the punishment can be jail up to one year and a fine up to Rs 5,000. Since the police appeal did not seem to have much effect, the police started taking action. A case of begging has been registered against a youth in Bhanwar Kuan police station of Indore. Indore district administration has also announced a reward of Rs 1,000 for people who give information about begging or begging givers. It is true that neither does anyone like to see beggars nor does anyone like to beg, but now begging has become a profession. Big gangs work behind this. Therefore, the aim of the government is to eliminate these gangs, but the easier it is to make such laws, the more difficult it is to implement them at the ground level.
Identifying beggars and collecting evidence against them for begging is a difficult task. It is even more difficult to catch those who give alms and make a case against them. On the other hand, there is also an emotional aspect to it. Generally people sympathize with those who beg. That is why expecting that the work will be done by giving people a reward of Rs 1,000 for providing information about beggars seems a joke. If action is taken against criminals and they are put in jail, no one will have any complaint, but if some poor or helpless person is put in jail, people will not be happy with it.
This problem cannot be solved by law or jail. For this, it would be better if social organizations are involved in this campaign and the beggars are employed in some work. The beggars will have to be trained to do such work, which will give them an opportunity to earn a living and they will not have to beg. (Rajat Sharma)
Watch: ‘Aaj Ki Baat, Rajat Sharma Sath’ full episode of January 24, 2025
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