Volunteers seeking donations taken to shelter for beggars in Hyderabad
HYDERABAD: The “Make Hyderabad a Beggar Free City” campaign launched by the State Prisons and Correctional Services three months ago is attempting to do such a ‘thorough job’ that even NGO volunteers seeking funds are being rounded up forcefully taken to special homes for beggars. Their crime —seeking donations from commuters at busy city junctions for social causes.
Jailor M Krishnamurthy says the people taken into custody could not connect the prisons department to the NGOs they were working for. “Six people claiming to be working for NGOs have been brought to the shelter homes on grounds of beggary, both men and women. When we interrogated them, none could connect us to the NGOs they were working for. These NGOs do no answer calls. It proves their intention of falsely making money,” he says.
The department officials claim that seeking of funds from public by employees or people drawing regular salaries also amount to begging. “As their presence is causing traffic congestion, policemen and commuters raised concerns,” says Krishnamurthy. One such employee, 24-year-old D Sudhakar, says he feels humiliated that the department thought he was a beggar.
“I was collecting money thinking it was for a social cause. But now, I am being treated like a beggar along with the rest of them here,” he says. Sudhakar claims to be working with an NGO that was among first in the city to raise funds from commuters on roads. “I only wanted to support my NGO that provides shelter for orphaned children. I did not even know that some NGOs indulge in such scams,” adds Sudhakar.
Some were critical about the channels through which money is raised. “Many people who collect money like this do not give it to any NGO or any cause. They are just claims,” says V Karuna who works as a medical consultant at the special home. “Many use this as a mode for easy income. It’s a scam of different sort,” adds Karuna.
Y Arun Daniel, founder of an NGO in Hyderabad working with beggars says many of these people are forced to ask money. “There are always better ways to ask for funds. Further, funds should come based on the merit of work done by an organisation, not collected from street corners,” he says. However, some observe that the department has been quick to jump to conclusions in ascertaining their role of begging.