Begging Indians to join: Govt wants to rope in beggars to promote Swacch Bharat

The union government has a lot of social schemes that it is hoping people will start implementing and in its latest advertising push it will even have people beg for you to implement them.

According to a report in the Economic Times , the government is planning to rope in beggars to hardsell initiatives like the Swacch Bharat and Beti Bachao campaigns. This despite them not being at the forefront of the implementation of such campaigns.

The report says that Information and Broadcasting ministry has come up with the idea of advertising initiatives through this campaign and about 3,000 beggars will be trained to sing in trains and other public places, as part of an effort to ramp up field publicity.

While a ministry concept note is reported to be working on a remuneration model for those to be engaged for this work, an official was quoted as saying that the government is looking at this as an opportunity to provide livelihood to them.

The ministry’s move, while unique, comes as a surprise given most states continue to have anti-beggary laws on their statute books, which provide for arrest and detention of beggars.

Interestingly, the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, specifically mentions “singing” or “dancing” in public places as part of the definition of begging, for which people can be arrested.

The introduction to The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, on which other states modeled their legislation, state that it is a law for the “custody, trial and punishment of beggar offenders,” as also for their “training and employment.”

Questions have been raised on the level of actual facilities for training and employment in such institutions. Earlier this year, the Delhi High Court issued notices to the union and the state government on a petition seeking better facilities and opportunities for vocational training at beggars’ homes, The Hindu had reported. An expert committee appointed by the Supreme Court is said to have found facilities at such homes to be inadequate.

The attempt to publicize government initiatives through beggars wandering in public places comes in the context of large-scale public spending towards this end. Mint reported last year that within a month of its launch, the government spent almost Rs 40 crore on advertising the Swachh Bharat campaign. This amounted to 23.5% of the entire advertising budget for that fiscal year.