By Nilanjana Goswami
Weeks ahead of Ivanka Trump?s visit to Hyderabad for the GE Summit to be held there, the authorities have begun a severe crackdown on beggars and minor street peddlers to round them up away from the view of the dignitaries who are to arrive. According to official records, more than 200 beggars have been transported ?in the last week itself? to separate male and female shelters and rehabilitation homes near Chanchalguda jail and another city prison. The officials aim to remove 6000 more from Hyderabad?s city center and adjoining areas in preparation for the Summit that will be held from the 28th to the 30th of November. Anti-naxal ?Greyhounds? and Anti-terrorist ?Octopus? commandos are also to be deployed, along with Trump?s security detail (US Home land Security, Special Protection Group and Intelligence Bureau), for combing operations around the Taj Falaknuma, where the event will take place. Roughly 44,000 entrepreneurs are competing for 400 slots to participate in the Summit, which (currently in its eighth year) will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 28th of November, and see panels of major academics and influential CEOs take the stage to discuss entrepreneurial innovations all across the world.
A chasm separates this glittering event and the reality of those it has started to displace.
According to a study conducted by the World Bank in 2013, India housed the highest number of people living below the poverty line, with 30% of its population living under the $1.90-a- day poverty measure. Nearly 224 million people in the second-largest population of the world live on less than 32 rupees a day. Despite poverty alleviation programmes running into large acronymic soups and showy slogans, the fate of the poor is decided by boots on the ground and batons bullying them away for being an ?eyesore? to foreign delegations. The law isn?t on their side as well, and hasn?t been since the legislation of the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act 1959 (a close copy of a piece of legislature dating back to the days of the Raj, as is the case with a lot of legislature instituted currently) that has formally criminalized begging in all states and union territories of India. However, as it would strike any Indian immediately, there is a disjunction between the printed word and the day-to-day life of our country. Beggars and homeless populations, slum-dwellings, encroachments, alms at traffic signals and public temples are all normalized, vivid experiences everywhere in India. The fact is that the implementation of the law has remained faulty, like many others. However, its existence has time and again provided a convenient caveat for the authorities whenever anti-beggary drives were to be conducted in urban areas ?curiously always days ahead of a dignitary?s visit. This is not the first sweep of its kind. Prior to erstwhile POTUS Bill Clinton?s visit to Hyderabad in 2000, and more infamously during the preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi, the demolition of slums and displacement or forced relocation of beggars and slum dwellers was a bone of contention all over social media platforms. This outrage has died down in public quarters nearly everywhere now, and it?s only activists such as Madhu Purnima Kishwar who continue to opine that there needs to be a revision of the law because it criminalizes poverty ?a state that nobody chooses to be in, and forever seeks deliverance from.
The authorities have cited “danger to traffic and public in general” as the official reason behind the move. The ban has been defended in such quarters by reasoning that ?Such acts are causing annoyance and awkwardness by exposing in an indecent manner to divert the attention of the vehicular traffic as well as pedestrians and public in general to induce them to give alms.”
One of the major issues that remain, according to many sources, is the issue of accommodation: where to house the thousands of beggars being swept up from the streets. George Rakesh Babu, founder of the homeless charity Good Samaritans expressed concern regarding this: ?The preparations are happening in every corner of our city but the prison capacity in Hyderabad is not enough to look after all these people.? According to The Washington Post, the Central Jail?s maximum capacity was 1,000. However, a survey conducted in 2014 puts the number of the city?s homeless population at 3,500. ?Some beggars argued that we were taking their freedom to live anywhere they want but we told them it was for their own good because they are going to the rehab centre where they will be taken care of,? an anonymous official told the Indian Express.
The situation is an exasperatingly murky one. It is true that since the deployment of the NREGA programmes and their revisions, along with other social security, food security and urban development programmes the percentage of the urban poor has been dwindling decisively and more and more have been successful in climbing above the poverty line. But beggary isn?t simply an institution supporting the destitute, but a space for organized crime and drug trafficking as well. Many slum-children are ?employed? in beggary rings which, like cartels, aggregate the sums of alms and other grants to report it to a local controlling unit. This is why many, from among the Hyderabadi populace, have agreed with the decision. Beggars and beggary rings do constitute a serious blot upon the revamped ?Silicon Valley? image the city has been trying to project itself as for a couple of years. What must be understood, nevertheless, is that poverty is an incredibly stark reality for a disproportionately large section of India?s population devoid of financial opportunities, trapped in a vicious cycle. Herding some of them away, like cattle, into institutions of incarceration and rehabilitation is not only a poor resolution to the problem of poverty, but also a grave insult offered to these destitute masses ?many of who, despite not having two square meals a day, possess a voter ID and are our fellow-citizens. It is doubly ironic, perhaps, that the GE Summit seeks to celebrate women in entrepreneurship and leadership positions and to promote equitable economic growth, while some miles away the disjointed reality of the economic inequality and absence of privilege makes itself felt across the city prisons and rehab homes of the city center.
Of course, the authorities aren?t bothered with long-term goals of resolution; they are involved in ?beautifying? the area, masking the reality that India itself is ashamed to face. The point being driven home, by this, is one that will perpetuate the growing gap further: if you are poor, you have no right to be treated like a human being. This is what we must take issue with; this is what we must change. A lackadaisical attitude and general inertia has always characterized the implementation of large-scale urban development programmes in India. It is high time, therefore, to take notice of the fact and drown the alleyways of due-process with activity and passion. Fundamentally, it is imperative that our voice be heard so that those of our own citizens aren?t silenced by being swept under the rug to ?keep up appearances?.
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