Supreme court asks Centre, four States to respond to plea to decriminalise begging
Relevance to Syllabus
Paper-2 - challenges of social transformation
Begging refers to “soliciting or receiving alms in a public place, whether or not under any pretence of singing, dancing, fortune-telling, performing or offering any article for sale”. Beggary is a form of personal disorganization as it indicates the failure of the individual to adjust himself with his social milieu.
Functionalist perspective :- begging as a product of poverty . They argue that begging performs some identifiable functions seem need by the society. The existence of beggers Helps the society to fullfill social, religious and economic obligations.
Marxist perspective :- begging is a product of unequal access to life chanes that is people opportunities to provide themselves with material goods. It reflects inequality generated by capitalism
Social causes of begging
1.Religious causes:- Religious mendicancy is not only tolerated by a large section of Hindus, Muslims and Christian population, but even supported on religious grounds. a sort of religious sanctity is attached to alms.
Example : Faqir in muslims and banjaras in hinduism .
2.Disintegration of joint family system:- The absence of joint family and other social institution to share and provide support forces quite a few persons in crises situations to a life of beggary.
3.Cultural conflict:- beggary and allied pattern of existence might be a reflection of cultural conflict.The anxieties, insecurities and the anonymous mode of urban existence engender a condition of anomie for the rural migrant.
4.Social disorganization:- social change and industrialization have been responsible for considerable disorganization in the social
institutions and structures.
Example The widows are not allowed to remarry and are often maltreated by their in-laws; hence in order to escape mental torture they move out of family
Mukharee says beggary is a symptom of social disorganization and the widespread customs of alms giving by individuals and institutions.
5.Family anomie:- may be death of the husband, death of the breadwinner, step-parental treatment, maltreatment, disruption in the family or desertion by the husband. Majority of the children who beg have no support.
6.Social custom :- certain communities they consider begging as their hereditary profession. Among these Nats, Bajigars, Sains, They do not attach any social stigma to this profession and take to it from their very childhood.( Faulty socialization )
7.poverty :- poverty brings personal family and community disorganization. Persistent poverty among people's is considered as forcing them to beg.
8.legal lag ( there is no central act on begging, many states follow the Bombay act as the basis for thier own laws + definitional problem of public place and soliticiting alms.)
9.Biological Cause
(a) Physical disability or deformity;
(b) Sickness or disease;
(c) Mental infirmity and
(d) Old age.
Other causes
1.Lack of parental control.
2.unemployment and underemployment
3.natural calamities ( drought, displacement and disasters )
4.lucrative business :- because easy profits and income from begging
Social impact of begging on society.
Presence of beggers were seen as manifestation of larger social ills or issues
1.sexual violence ( physical assault and verbal abuse )
2.problems of shelter and food
3.it leads to prostitution, drug addiction and crime
4.discrimination and stigmatization
5.they are distrubing health system by spreading communicable disease
6.Beggarization :- beggarization is the practice of begging with the criminal intent to defraud the donar carried out in an organized manner
Arguments favour on decriminalizing the begging
1.Criminalization of begging it deprive them of the constitutional guarantee of inclusiveness and pluralism and results in further deprivation to them.
2.it outcome of extremely prejudiced social constructs of presumption of criminality against the poor and baseless stereotypes in ignorance of the extreme exclusion.
Argument against decriminalizing the begging
1.would lead to development of Ganges and rockets promoting begging and pushing
2.challenges of identifying the real beggers
3.begging is manifest failure of the state to ensure basic entitlement of health, food, clothing and shelter ( it question the legitimacy of the state )
