Indian Scene

War on beggars

Inspired from the repeated statements of prime minister Manmohan Singh that “Naxalism” is the main danger before the country, the Delhi state government has launched a war on beggars to beautify Delhi for the common wealth games. According to Delhi social welfare minister “ beggars are nuisance, and begging has to be stopped…….. We Indians are used to beggars. Westerners are not. So we must make the city free of them” . So to make the city friendly to westerners like stray dogs the beggars are carted out of Delhi.
Lording over a ruling systems which is making the common people more pauperized compelling more to become beggars, without doing anything to make the right to livelihood a reality for the poor, the Congress led UPA government at centre and its minions administering Delhi are going to spent almost RS 50, OOO crores or more for the CWG an event to remind us that we were once part of the British empire. Out of it not a paisa is spent for making life more tolerable for the poor who constitute 40-50% of the population. On the contrary an estimated 50,000 beggars are being forcefully sent out of Delhi, forty four slums with over one lakh families are being demolished and cleared.
When this fabulous amount is spent for a 12 day sports event nobody at the top are asking how much of this infrastructure built is going to be utilized in the future. Even much of the infrastructure built for 1982 Asian game is still not used.
One is forced to recollect that to win 1971elections Indira
Gandhi had given the famous slogan “garibi hatao”. What happened to that slogan is part of our history. Even after almost four decades people living below poverty line in the country is almost 50%  of the population. So her present day disciples have come forward with the novel idea of declaring war on beggars, throwing them out of the city along with those living in the poor slums. From the brutal exploitation of the workers employed in CWG projects to present war on beggars the whole CWG effort is to transform Delhi in to a city of the elite classes, so that more westerners can visit it as the minister hopes.