Policy on beggars needs a rethink

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, February 3

The Delhi government has thrown up its hands in despair in its bid to check the rising number of beggars on the streets of the city before the Commonwealth Games, 2010.

Much to its horror, it has realized that it can effectively house only 2180 beggars in all its 11 rehabilitation homes while the number of beggars is close to 75,000 in the Capital. What gives it a twist is that the department has not been able to arrest the beggars as only 1340 of them are lodged in these homes at present, much below the capacity.

The facts came out in an internal meeting of the Social Welfare Department which was chaired by Social Welfare Minister Yoganand Shastri. The Social Defence Section of the department made a presentation on the rehabilitation of the beggars but found that it cannot do so given its own inherent limitations.

Shastri said: “This is a social problem all over the country and is not limited to Delhi alone. We have plan in place to rehabilitate the beggars by teaching them skills like weaving, carpentry, printing, cycle repairing, tailoring, etc. It seems we need to do more”.

The presentation also pointed out that though begging is a cognizable offence under the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 as applicable to Delhi, the arrests are not serving the purpose of checking beggary. The department intensified its drive in 2007 and arrested 2537 beggars and produced them in court. Those who were “proved to be beggars” were remanded to the rehabilitation homes but were back in business the very next day of their release. In January this year, the department arrested 493 beggars of whom 423 were released by court.

The department has identified 4 problem areas in solving the beggary menace – witnesses not coming forward for evidence against beggars in court, physical resistance from beggars at the time of arrest, sympathy of public for beggars and encouragement by the society due to religious beliefs.

To meet the challenge thrown by the beggary menace, the department has drawn up a five pronged action plan – installation of biometric identification system, setting up of mobile courts, use of cameras for evidence and augmentation of raids. The officials also plan to organize meetings with religious organizations for curbing the menace.

“We hope to control the number of beggars with these steps,” said Shastri, adding, “the society too has to play a role in making Delhi a beggar free Capital”. BOX:

Findings of the Department of Social Work, Delhi University, after a survey and detailed interview of 5003 beggars in 2007. - 29.52 are below 18 years of age

- 69.94 percent are male and 35.06 percent females

- In percentage terms, Hindus comprise 76.26, Muslims 22.63, Christian 0.59 and Sikhs 0.48

- Above 18 years, the able bodied are 66.37 percent while the disabled 33.63 percent

- A whopping 80.65 percent were illiterate and the remaining were literate.

- Of the 3526 adult beggars surveyed and interviewed, 2633 did it because of unemployment while for 863, it was a family profession. Of these, 22 were forced by someone else while 8 were working for an organized gang.

- Of the 1477 child beggars, a majority of 818 did it for food and clothes, 102 due to family profession, 222 for money and 3 for drugs. Another 332 did it for various reasons like sister’s marriage, medical help, not interested in studies, forced by someone, enjoyment or for purchasing drugs and alcohol.

(2008)

Welfare schemes do not reach the beneficiaries

Amitabh Shukla

New Delhi, March 5

The Delhi government has belatedly realized that its welfare schemes, on which crores of tax payer’s money is spent, does not reach the intended beneficiary. It has decided to overhaul its welfare schemes in entirety and has proposed to create a database and introduce Smart Cards for the beneficiaries so that its impact can be monitored.

“We do not have a very accurate figure of people below poverty or homeless persons, but the need for accurate assessment on continuous basis of the number of people below poverty and nature of poverty needs to be made,” said a government note.

The Delhi Cabinet, in its meeting scheduled for Friday is likely to pass a proposal wherein all schemes of social services would be practically merged and monitored with the help of the Non Government Organisations (NGOs). To be called “Mission convergence of social services”, it has been decided to devolve the work of implementation at the lowest level rather than at the level of the Head of Department. From now on the family would be the focus and not the scheme itself.

“We have realized that over a period of time, the benefits are not reaching where it should. With this, we plan to rationalize all benefits which the people of weaker sections get in the city,” said a senior government official.

At present, there are eight departments which implement social welfare entitlement schemes. These are departments of Health, Education, Social Welfare, Women and Child Development, SC/ST Welfare, Food and Supply, Labour and Urban Development through the civic bodies. The schemes include those pertaining to old age assistance, widow assistance, scholarship and stipend to physically handicapped, subsidy on school uniform text books etc,. Pension to the needy and subsidized ration too fall in this category.

“Each of these departments is seen to be ‘doing their own thing in implementing various schemes,” a government note on the subject said. On the reasons for the convergence of all schemes under one umbrella, it said, “There is no coordination or focus on the family. This makes it difficult to assess the quality of the intervention for the family,” the note added.

After the scheme is implemented, most of the funds would be released at the level of the SDM, NGOs would be engaged in the exercise and an IT backbone would be created. Moreover, the NGOs would be responsible for actual implementation at ground level.

A senior official said: “Mission convergence would create a society for enabling the engagement of NGOs, deployment of funds, holding of data on entitlement categories and release of welfare entitlements to various persons”.

(2008)

NGOs to give report on Delhi's child labourers

Amitabh Shukla

Oct 10, 2006

Unable to determine the number of child labourers in Delhi and the areas they work in, the Delhi Government on Tuesday decided to rope in the NGO’s for a fact finding report on the child labourers of the city.

"We have decided to take the help of the NGO’s to find out how many such labourers are in the city and where they work," said Labour and Industry Minister MR Singhal. The minister said that the department would take action against anyone who is found to be employing a child below the age of 14.

Asked about the preparedness of the Labour Department to tackle the scourge of child labourers, the minister said that the labour officers of all the districts would receive complaint and take action.

Tuesday was the first day when child labour was banned officially and they can neither work as domestic helps or in the hotels and dhabas. The government, however, did not take action against anyone in the first day of the new law.

The labour officials estimate that there could be around 60 thousand such labourers in the city. "The last census in 2001 reported 47,000 child labourers. In the last five years, the figure could have touched 60,000," the minister admitted.

The NGO’s involved in eradication of child labour, however, pointed out that a further notification is required to ban child labour in the specified trade. Social Jurist, a NGO, said that the July 10 notification of the Ministry of Labour and Employment banning child labour as domestic helps, their employment in dhabas, restaurant, eateries, tea shops, recreational centres etc, was only a notice of three months on the intention of the government to ban it. "It has to be followed by a further notification," said Ashok Aggarwal of the Social Jurist.

Aggarwal said that earlier when trades like electroplating, graphite powdering, grinding or glazing of metals, diamond cutting and polishing, rag picking and scavenging were added to Part B of the Schedule to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, a second notification was made.

"The first notification of their intention was issued on July 28, 2000 whereas the further notification banning child labour in the aforesaid processes was issued on May 10, 2001," Aggarwal pointed out.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/159971.aspx

Child workers face rehab blues

Amitabh Shukla

Oct 14, 2006

It is the question that has been haunting the Delhi government since the notification banning child labour in the domestic/employment sector was issued three months ago — how is it going to rehabilitate the children, an estimated one lakh of them, rescued from the city’s dhabas, restaurants and homes? Three days after the ban on child labour came into effect, the government still has no satisfactory answer.

The stark reality is that even if the officials rescue child labourers, there is not enough infrastructure and mechanism to rehabilitate them. At present, there are only 20 Transition Educational Centres (TEC) for rescued child labourers. At best, they can accommodate 1,000 children at a time, whereas, according to some NGOs, the number of child labourers in the city is close to one lakh.

Asked about the plans to tackle the situation, Labour Minister M.R. Singhal pointed out that the government had proposed another 40 TECs. “The children can be accommodated in these centres,” he said. Reminded that this was hardly sufficient, the minister was left groping for a reply. “An action plan has been drawn up and it has assigned tasks to various departments so that all of them work in synergy for the eradication of child labour from the city,” was all the minister had to say.

The government, with help from some NGOs, imparts vocational training to children and gets them enrolled in schools in the TECs, said Joint Labour Commissioner Piyush Sharma. However, the numbers are too huge to deal with, officials admitted. Realising the enormous task ahead, the government has decided it will not conduct raids till Diwali for rescuing child labourers. “We do not want to traumatise children during the festive season,” Sharma said. But this will only postpone action, not avert it.

The government claims that almost all child labourers in Delhi are either from West Bengal or from Bihar and Jharkhand. Therefore, a meeting of officials from the concerned states was held, in which it was decided that the respective state governments would rehabilitate the children after they were sent home from Delhi.

What about the employers who claim that the children working in their dhabas, restaurants, tea shops or repair shops are their own? Officials would inquire whether the child is enrolled in a school and attends it regularly, said the minister. “If the child studies in a school and works part time, we will not take any action,” he said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/161207.aspx