Encountering True Lies......

When we started two years back, we knew that the area we were entering into was largely unexplored and therefore would require lot of patience and strategic flexibility to learn and unlearn but little did we know about the scale of unpredictability.
We thought we were into the subject but the nature of destitution is so complex that you tend to enter the dangerous zones of forming opinions very swiftly. I’m calling it dangerous because you see a person who has been on the street for his entire life and still hopeful of getting back to his family somewhere sometime, on the other hand you have a person who is happily settled into the life where he is continuously dependant on others. For him it is the only way of living.
People were always talking about the so called ‘syndicate’ of beggars. In our two years of close association with the people who are into begging, we are yet to encounter such organized grouping. What we have seen is informal and instable living patterns where people are coming together but its more for the fulfillment of that basic element of life, which we all call as ‘emotions’ than because of any economic motives.
Somebody who is seen as an exploiter through the eyes of social worker could be the only support available to the perceived exploited person. Many people encountered us by saying that we are doing irrelevant stuff because these people on street don’t really deserve the care and protection. According to these friends, the homeless person is homeless because he wants to be one. Destitute is begging because its easy money for him and he doesn’t want to work but same people kept quiet when we asked them if they are ready to appoint such people to work,? If they are,we’ll provide them with willing people.
Life is nothing short of puzzle and a very strange one. How else do you explain the complex web of human relations? The cases that we dealt with brought out so many different aspects of life. As we moved deeper, different realities of life were unfolded. People lied to us but those lies were the truth of their lives’. There were several factors leading to state of homelessness but breaking down of the family ties emerged as one of the biggest contributing factor to homelessness and destitution.
Last year was significant for the project in many ways. First, our team grew. Two new members joined the team as project officers. We were also able to garner more support for the program as people began to acknowledge and see the impact that this team created.
Year saw us reuniting more than 500 people with their families.Some of them have been away from the family since several years.Every time a family was traced,a ray of hope was started for an otherwise lonely soul.
It was like our dream turning into reality when we were able to pull about 10 people out of begging.It took us long time to give them enough confidence about their survival once they were out of their occupation of several years. Today,they all are at work. They have reaffirmed our belief that no body wants to beg,for no body wants to strip himself naked of his dignity and pride.
Yes,pride and dignity are what you loose first as circmstances force you into world of abuse and dependance.
There is a very citical difference between those who beg and those who are processed under ‘beggay prevention Act. Unfortunately,the law which aims at rehabilitation of destitute and abondoned people who are forced into begging,has actually become a major factor contributing to begging.The way its implemented,every month hundreds of innocent people were arrested and kept in custody.We investigated and ensured that such people were presented fairly in the court and released accordingly.
This year we were also able to set up small unit for vocational training where about 40 clients were provided training in various trades.
We also entered into significant but complex area of mental illness. A small pilot has been started with Regional Mental Hospital.Through this,we are trying to address to the needs of those with mental illness but lodged inside beggar’s home.It was very evident that many of the cases that we dealt with, especially those of women, had some element of mental illness and somewhere this component of illness coupled with certain other factors and family situations led to their state of destitution. This was quite disturbing phenomenon and we have attempted to address it at very critical stage.