HYDERABAD: The Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) department has set October 25 as the deadline for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Cyberabad Municipal Corporation (CMC), Malkajgiri Municipal Corporation (MMC) and other urban local bodies (ULBs) to implement the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) recommendations on beggary and submit action-taken reports.
The measures focus on identifying begging hotspots, extending welfare benefits, rehabilitating vulnerable people and taking action against organised begging networks and trafficking groups under relevant provisions of the BNS.
The directive follows recommendations adopted by the NHRC after an open house discussion in New Delhi on “Rethinking Beggary: Bridging Gaps between Policy, Practice and Dignity”.
The Telangana Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (TMEPMA) has instructed civic bodies to implement the recommendations and submit detailed compliance reports. Additional Commissioners handling Urban Community Development in GHMC, CMC and MMC, along with MEPMA Project Directors and District Mission Coordinators, have been tasked with overseeing implementation.
The recommendations call for identifying areas with high concentrations of people engaged in begging and assessing their numbers to plan targeted interventions. Civic bodies have also been asked to organise outreach programmes to facilitate Aadhaar enrolment at shelter homes and identified hotspots, enabling eligible people to access government welfare schemes.
The NHRC has proposed a uniform understanding of beggary across ULBs and consultations with the State Government on its decriminalisation, in line with relevant judicial pronouncements. Officials have also been asked to prepare a consolidated list of eligibility criteria, benefits and exemptions under social welfare schemes.
Other recommendations include issuing identity cards to facilitate access to welfare benefits, linking skill development programmes to market requirements and corporate partnerships, and ensuring voluntary admission to shelter homes instead of coercive institutionalisation.
The commission has stressed family-based rehabilitation, particularly for children pushed into begging by socio-economic vulnerability. Sports and after-school programmes, family tracing and reunification have also been recommended to prevent children from returning to begging.
