Freedom more important than free food, say Hyderabad's rescued beggars

The second phase of beggar-free Hyderabad campaign, that took off recently, has gathered more than 30 men and 5 women.
One of the rescued beggars at Anand Ashram in Hyderabad on Tuesday. (Express Photo | R Satish Babu)
One of the rescued beggars at Anand Ashram in Hyderabad on Tuesday. (Express Photo | R Satish Babu)

HYDERABAD: The second phase of beggar-free Hyderabad campaign, that took off recently, has gathered more than 30 men and 5 women who are now waiting for a response from their families or a job from prisons department.  While most men are struggling with curbs on substances like cigarettes and alcohol that they freely consumed while outside, it’s loneliness haunts the women housed at the rehabilitation centre for a month now. 

“Is this a place you live in?” asks middle-aged Nagaratnamulu, housed at the Cherlapally women’s shelter. She was picked up while begging at the initial stages of the drive itself. “There is no place to walk around. I am always inside. I don’t know how long I can continue like this.” Visually impaired on one eye, Nagaratnamulu moved to Hyderabad in search of a livelihood. She was hoping to return to her mother living in Kadiri, a village in Ananthapur district of Andhra Pradesh, but says she was illegally detained and brought to the ashram while taking a nap near Malakpet. 

“I get three meals and two teas a day, clothing to wear and even a bed to sleep on. But what is the point? I don’t get to eat what I want because I don’t earn here,” she says. Living inside a locked school building that doubles as an ashram, Nagaratnamulu is accompanied by four other women, three of them who are twice her age. 

Director General (Prisons) VK Singh says these shelter homes are strict by design. “You have to see it as a measure to protect them than curbing their freedom. They are women, we don’t want anything to happen to them,” says Singh. Not everyone agree with Singh. Another prison official that Express spoke to claims that inmates “feeling shelter homes are like jails” defeat the social work being done by the department.  

Some beggars want to continue ‘profession’

Several women at the shelter home say they do not want to quit their ‘profession’ of begging. “All I can do is sit in a corner and spend the entire day. I am too old and weak to stand for long or work,” says a woman inmate. “Self respect is a major reason these people turned to begging,” says Tirumala Yadav, caretaker of the men’s shelter. “Many of them are people who walked out of their homes unable to take the humiliation and insults heaped by family members.” 

K Satish, a beggar, who has been shifted for the second time to the shelter home said that many of the people who have recently joined are psychologically not stable. “I have to wash their clothes, utensils, and even clean up people who are unwell and soil their clothes,” says Satish.  

‘Experienced people will be roped in to take care of shelter homes’

Hyderabad: Acknowledging the fact that the life imprisonment convicts who have been assisting shelter home run by Telangana Prisons department are insensitive after Express highlighted treatment shown towards men detained from streets on charges of begging, Director-General (Prisons) said that experienced people in social work will start to take better care of the shelter homes.  He said that the lifetime serving inmates of the open-air jail have been assisting the shelter home officials as there is a lack of enough staff.

 “I do not expect them to be helpful, nice or conduct in a way they have to with the beggars because they are not trained to. I cannot force them to serve. Experienced people in social service from NGO’s will be roped in to do the job,” VK Singh said.  When asked if the process of relocating beggars from streets to the shelter homes was technically right since no police cases were booked, he said that it is the noblest service which the Prisons department is doing. “Prison staff who are involved in this project are doing a punya. We are not going against law. In fact, we are helping lowest rung people of the society,” said VK Singh.

Social workers say counselling is the only way out
Though there are psychologists who attend to inmates on a weekly basis, there is more that is needed to be done, say experts. “Counselling is the best way out and it should not be restricted to one or two sessions as is the case now,” says Dr Md Rafiuddin, author of Beggars in Hyderabad. “The process should be continuous and rehabilitation efforts are crucial to success of this programme,” he adds.

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