A sigh of relief for Beggars...

 A sigh of relief for Beggars 
Shelter homes in Jammu soon... 
-Rashi Sharma
               Jammu, January: The number of beggars in the Jammu city has been on a constant rise since the past 3 decades (as per the reports of Greater Kashmir). This menace of destitute and disgrace, however is not a new thing for people of Jammu as laws have been enacted to curb the menace as early as 1960s. The Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Beggary Act, 1960 describes beggary as an offence and calls for immediate arrest of the offenders. In 2015, Public Interest Litigation was filed by advocate Parimoksh Seth seeking directions to implement provisions of the Beggary Act, 1960 in which the Division Bench of State High Court directed the state to construct adequate number of beggar's homes within a period of 6 months.
Vinay Kumar, Central University of Jammu, Social welfare Department while talking to the Jammu Enquirer he said, "Beggary has become a menace in Jammu and there is a complete dearth of night shelters in the region." The former Governor of the state of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik during his tenure, formed a committee to find the number of homeless people on the streets of Jammu as an initial step to curb the menace, he added.
The invoking of anti-begging laws and the consequent ban is a more punitive action than being remedial in nature. It can sweep away the menace but not eradicate it completely.Sanjay Kumar, operational director, Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan (AAA) who has been pioneering in the field of alleviating beggary since the last 25 years said, “Homeless people, too, have the right to live with dignity, in peace and security”. AAA is a one of a kind initiative in collaboration with the Central and State Governments which has been instrumental in providing around 200 shelter homes in Delhi to the poor and destitute. “The campaign receives funds from the Ministry of Housing and Urban affairs, under the National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) which aims at providing shelters equipped with essential services to the urban homeless. The Kailash Gambhir committee, formed by the Apex court verifies the availability of night shelters and inquires into the reasons behind its slow progress to make the functioning transparent”, he added. Kumar shared with the Jammu Enquirer, “we are planning to create equipped shelter homes in Jammu as soon as the legal procedures involved are sorted”.
With constant speculation of acts of petty thefts and pick-pockets being carried out by the roadside beggars, Inspector Aarti Thakur, SHO, women cell, Gandhinagar, said, “I personally condemn such acts”. Further, giving relevant insights she said, “most of the beggars found on the streets are migrants from other parts of the country and also from across the border”. “Child line, juvenile office, Kachi Chhawni works for sending back these migrants to their native land”, she added.
 Although the initiative bears a financial implication on the state, but the most important functioning of the governing system still remains to pull its citizens out of misery, which becomes more compelling as we promise to live in one of the world’s biggest republic.