TN launches scheme to rehabilitate beggars, but has no govt-run accommodation
On December 3, 2022, the Tamil Nadu police launched Operation New Life, a mission to rescue beggars. As part of the mission, the police rounded up 1,800 beggars in the state, out of which, 953 were admitted to non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Earlier this year, the Union government had launched the Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise (SMILE) scheme to provide rehabilitation for transgender persons and beggars in India. Launched in August at a cost of Rs 100 crore, SMILE was piloted in Chennai and nine other cities. However, the state has no government-run rehabilitation facility capable of accommodating the ‘rescued’.
The only state-owned rehabilitation centre for beggars in Tamil Nadu, located at Melpakkam, is badly in need of renovation. In the absence of a government facility for rehabilitating beggars, and with schemes like New Life and SMILE in place, NGOs in Tamil Nadu are exceeding capacity. P Naveen Kumar, founder of Atchayam Trust for rehabilitating beggars in Erode, commented, “The pressure is mainly felt by NGOs when they are pushed to exceed their capacity. Every NGO has a certain cap on the number of people that it can rehabilitate. But when there is more inflow of people, it becomes a problem for us. Even at Atchayam, we are currently operating at full capacity.”
While speaking about such rehabilitation schemes, Naveen added, “SMILE is a great initiative because there aren’t many NGOs in Tamil Nadu that accommodate and rehabilitate transgenders who also beg. The state’s mission to rescue beggars is equally good, but the problem of not having a government facility remains. Apart from that, there is also the additional need for staff, because many of them need psychiatric help to be rehabilitated successfully.”
In July 2021, the Supreme Court of India had rejected a petition to ban begging. The Prevention of Begging Act, 1945, which has been adopted by several states and union territories, including Tamil Nadu, gives the police the right to arrest beggars, and treats begging as a crime. The court dismissed anti-begging measures as “elitist.” The bench, which consisted of justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah, said, “The only solution to this socio-economic problem is their rehabilitation and giving them education and employment.” Shortly after this, Chief Minister MK Stalin stressed upon the importance of opening beggars’ rehabilitation centres across districts in Tamil Nadu. However, there was no mention of revamping the existing structures in Melpakkam.
Renovation long overdue at Melpakkam
Despite being located right next to Avadi’s T-6 police booth, with a prominent sign board that reads ‘Melpakkam’ placed right outside its rusty gates, the Tamil Nadu government’s beggar’s rehabilitation camp tends to go unnoticed. The nine acres of land with disorganised buildings from the 1950s, with no inmates, sit hidden behind a veil of trees. The only two people who enter this neglected property every day are the warders who are paid by the government to guard the empty grounds.
Inside the camp, a fallen cable post and a fallen tree (a result of the strong winds brought by cyclone Mandous) remain unattended, despite their fall having broken the roof of a building. With creepers having conquered the grounds, the camp, which previously had kitchens, dormitories, office rooms, and prison cells, shows no sign of maintenance.
When TNM approached the facility, the chief warder was seated in the guard room on a plastic chair placed in a puddle of rainwater. He remained bundled in his raincoat to protect himself from the rain water that was dripping from the broken roof. However, upon learning that he was being approached by the media, he fell silent and directed us to speak with “higher officials.”
An official from the Department of Welfare of the Differently Abled, who did not wish to be named, told TNM that no measures were taken to renovate the camp from their end, as it falls outside their specialised purview. An official from the Department said, “We only work for the differently abled. In February, we had asked the Department of Welfare to take it [the camp] over from us and they accepted in September. But an official government order has not been issued yet.” The control of the camp has been with different departments in the past and was last shifted in 2012 from the Department of Welfare to the Welfare of the Differently Abled. However, questions of why the shift wasn’t resisted in 2012 and why the Welfare of the Differently Abled took 10 years to realise that they lack the expertise to revamp and maintain the camp, remain unanswered.
Further, according to the officials from the Welfare of the Differently Abled, the roof of one of the structures at the Melpakkam camp caved in in 2012. Although the incident did not result in casualties, the camp was declared unfit for accommodating inmates, citing concerns over the safety of the camp’s residents. However, despite having been certified unfit, “convicted beggars'' were accommodated there till January 2016. After 2016, the place remained empty and the employees at the camp, including caretakers and cooks, were transferred to leprosy homes across the state to continue their services.
Moreover, the Madras High Court had, in 2019, ordered the camp to be turned into a centre to care for the mentally ill. However, the Supreme Court did not allow it. If renovated, the Melpakkam camp can accommodate more than 900 persons.