To be or not to be, that is the question

By Editor on 18 May 2011 Category:Amenities, Education, Governance, Health, Safety

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Last week, Bangalore City Police commissioner J P Mirji rdered his men to book transgenders harassing motorists at traffic signals under the stringent Karnataka Police Act.  Although this issue needs to be addressed, most  transgenders(and beggars) are a the outcome of a breakdown in adequate planning and provisions for the welfare of marginalized people.  Therefore, in lieu of this, is just booking the transgenders under the Karnataka Police Act the right way to deal with this problem? Are there any long term, sustainable solutions that can be employed instead?  Find out what our readers had to say! 

 

According to Beggary laws in India, begging is a crime which is punishable. People who are found begging can then be taken into custody and are placed in the Beggars Home. The stated purpose is rehabilitation - yet Beggars homes are uninhabitable, lacking in the very basic of facilities. People rarely remain there, finding the streets a far better home. A further conflict arises when the Police pick up the homeless, booking them under the beggary laws. Homeless people commit no crime, except for the fact that they have no home. They might even be gainfully employed. For the state, however, they are seen as a source of cheap labour. At the same time, by removing them from the streets, the state endeavors to 'hide' the blights they represent on the glossy image the country hopes to present to the world.
Booking the transgenders on the street is then, the way I see it, a double infraction on their rights. On one level they represent all that is 'abnormal' in society. Secondly, they dare to come out in the open and ask for money to live their lives in some sort of meaningful fashion. This creates the urge to hide them away. To me, it is not about the 'danger' that they present to motorists, but the danger they present to the moralizing forces which exist within the State. The problem is not with the transgenders asking for money, but the way they are treated by the rest of us 'normals.' I don't think that if they had the same opportunities in life that we did, we would even face the 'problem' of them being on the streets. But I guess you can say that for everything - for no small reason is discrimination such a strong cause of poverty.
- Sanjana Janardhanan
 
In all honesty, the transgenders at the signals are not too bad. They've never really bothered me, and whenever I said no to them, they've walked on. The main problem of course is society in general that is driving them towards begging. If we as a society were more accepting, and provide them with equal opportunities like we do for everyone else, this problem would never arise. So in reality the police by trying to crack down on them are actually violating the Indian Constitution by discriminating against them. The mind-set needs to change, where rather than taking a stand against them; we need to be taking a stand to help.
-Aditya Bandi 
 
I have seen most people flinch from contact with transgenders like it’s some kind of contractible contagious disease. I carry change in my wallet and always give when asked because I know and understand the issues they face as marginalised people - exploitation, mutilation, social ostracism, exclusion from mainstream society, identity crisis, HIV exposure and no healthcare benefits only because they do not fit into our definitions of what is `normal’. Rather than targeting only transgenders, begging  at traffic signals should be first addressed as the mother issue. Plans need to be made sensitively for transgenders -inclusion into mainstream society, providing the right to work, to government jobs, to vote, to healthcare, to social acceptance. Targeting any community specifically, without a legitimate reason to do so, is unconstitutional and  discrimination of the very worst kind.
-Aliyeh Rizvi 
 
The recent order from the desk of the City Police Commissioner to take formal action against  ‘transgenders’ appears to be a very trivial issue when seen in terms of just having a ‘for’ or ‘against’opinion. It is actually a very sensitive issue that points to the failure of the so called welfare state. India's beggary laws, instead of addressing  socio-economic issues make the poor criminally responsible for their position. The definition of beggar in law (anti-beggary act of1959) includes anyone who appears poor. However,  police personnel, according to the Police Act of 1963 under chapter VI clause (e) are liable and duty-bound to prevent to the best of his/her ability ‘the commission of public nuisance’. Many citizens who have had some sought of encounter with such problems would call it a `nuisance’ which is then liable to punishment according to the law. Therefore, it is ironical that on one hand we have the constitutional mandate/promise of a socialist-democratic welfare state on one hand and the police and the anti-beggary laws to legitimize the implementation of the recent orders of the city police commissioner on the other. 
Given this paradox, that further invokes the very legitimacy of the (welfare) state; we need to think critically about the well-being of  beggars. .  For instance, the state under its socio-welfare schema does provide opportunities to  beggars by enrolling them in  ‘Beggar Homes’ (vocational training schools) supported by the government. Such homes should be provided to the transgender(s) as well in order to facilitate a dignified living. These schools should have certain standards of quality and an up-to-date curriculum - a Beggar Home which I happened to visit in New Delhi (2009) was shocking – the school was worse than third rate jails where convicts  spend up to 10 years.
 I strongly think that the state while legitimizing its law through such orders to stop the so called ‘public nuisance’ by transgender(s) should also legitimize its socialist-democratic welfare provisions by implementing ‘quality’ vocational school and thereby safeguarding the very right to dignity of existence of transgender(s).  Given the present rate of competitive individualism and the individual attitudinal mind-set towards transgender- beggars it is difficult to live outside this paradox, but making a legitimate choice within this paradox is desirable.
-Chetan Singai
 
Compiled by J.Mumtaz  & edited by Aliyeh Rizvi
 
Do feel free to comment and express your views on the same. Write to us at Editor@ijanaagrha.org.
 
Tags: Beggars, Beggary, governance, health, Traffic-signals, Transgenders, welfare state
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