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Beggar Rehabilitation in Nagpur: Five Years of Data, Policy, and Unfinished Work

Beggar Rehabilitation in Nagpur: Five Years of Data, Policy, and Unfinished Work
Beggar Rehabilitation in Nagpur: Five Years of Data, Policy, and Unfinished Work

In 2019, Nagpur’s response to street begging largely remained confined to periodic round-ups and legal detentions under the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959. Government-run beggar homes functioned more like custodial centres than spaces of recovery, with limited access to healthcare, training, or counselling.


That changed in 2021 when the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment announced a new policy under the SMILE scheme, Support for Marginalised Individuals for Livelihood and Enterprise, targeting street beggars for rehabilitation instead of punishment. Nagpur was selected as one of ten cities for a national pilot programme.

In early 2022, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), in partnership with Sahyadri Foundation, opened the Aastha Beggars’ Rehabilitation and Shelter Home.


It was the first such facility to become operational under SMILE in Maharashtra and only the second in the country. The centre was established with a capacity to accommodate 150 persons at a time and was staffed with a team of 26, including a doctor, counsellors, vocational trainers, and care workers.


The approach departed from the older model of detention. Residents were enrolled voluntarily or brought in by outreach teams and underwent medical check-ups, counselling, Aadhaar registration, and skill assessment.


They were then placed in structured daily schedules that included yoga, literacy training, and practical skill development in trades such as tailoring, carpentry, envelope-making, painting, and handicrafts.



By October 2022, the centre had registered 191 persons. Of these, 111 were considered successfully rehabilitated, either placed in jobs, reconnected with families, or moved into safer living arrangements.

Fifty-eight individuals were reunited with relatives after a tracing exercise. Some joined employment as drivers, watchmen, vendors, or small-scale entrepreneurs.


One of the residents, who had lived on a road divider for five years, was assisted in securing commissions for wall painting after he was found to be a skilled artist.


Another was helped to begin training as a water vendor, but could not continue the plan due to market difficulties.


The rehabilitation model included the creation of an internal outlet called My Shelter Store to showcase and sell the products made by residents. The proceeds were partially distributed to the makers as income and partially reinvested to purchase raw materials.


The shelter's candle and lantern stall at a Deepavali exhibition drew substantial footfall and modest earnings.


The aim was to create small streams of income without forcing residents back into street vending. This skill-based rehabilitation was complemented by basic financial literacy and, in selected cases, support for obtaining driving licences or opening bank accounts.

Despite these successes, the shelter operated under capacity limits. The city’s total beggar population was estimated at 1,600 according to surveys conducted in 2020 and again in 2022.


Even at full capacity, the Aastha centre could accommodate fewer than 10% of that number at any given time.

To address this, NMC earmarked ₹1.5 crore in the 2023–24 civic budget for skill development programmes and an additional ₹10 crore for the expansion and maintenance of shelter homes.


Plans were drawn for three new centres, one for men, one for women, and another for families, but as of the end of 2024, none had been completed. The original shelter remained the only facility offering dedicated vocational rehabilitation for beggars in the city.


In the absence of expanded infrastructure, the city relied on partnerships with other institutions to manage special cases. Senior citizens found begging were moved to an old-age home, and those with serious illnesses were sent to the Regional Mental Hospital in Mankapur or a de-addiction centre.


A separate women’s shelter run by another agency handled younger female residents, though it remained full for most of 2023 and 2024.



Policing, Enforcement, and Controversy

Policing and Enforcement on Beggars of Nagpur
Policing and Enforcement on Beggars of Nagpur

The civic initiative operated alongside an evolving policing strategy. Nagpur Police, under the leadership of successive Commissioners, took an active role in implementing anti-begging drives.


In March 2023, ahead of a G20 delegates' meet hosted in the city, police and municipal teams removed hundreds of beggars from key junctions, tourist sites, and marketplaces.


Many were detained under the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act and temporarily housed in the government-run beggar home, which operates under custodial norms rather than rehabilitation-focused ones. Critics noted that the timing and method of the drive prioritised city aesthetics over social care.

In response to such criticisms and to provide an alternative, the police introduced Operation Mukti in 2024. This programme focused on removing homeless and destitute persons from the streets while ensuring that they received medical attention and were directed to appropriate shelters.


Outreach teams identified elderly individuals, including a 75-year-old woman who was living under a flyover while saving over ₹1 lakh in collected alms. She was admitted to the hospital and then transferred to a care home.


Other similar rescues were conducted across the city, with the police coordinating with Sahyadri Foundation and municipal health workers.



The use of legal provisions, however, remained controversial. While the SMILE scheme and the shelter model discouraged criminalisation of begging, the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act still empowered law enforcement to detain persons found soliciting alms in public.

This legal contradiction played out in real time. Police alternated between placing individuals in shelters and charging them in court for repeat violations. Nagpur’s dual-track approach drew attention when courts across the country, particularly in Delhi, had struck down similar laws for violating the rights of the poor.


In Delhi, the High Court ruled in 2018 that criminalising begging was unconstitutional unless the state could provide a viable alternative. Nagpur’s framework offered partial alternatives, but not yet at the scale needed to make detentions obsolete.


Municipal officials and police began to identify another trend: a segment of individuals posing as beggars while possessing sufficient resources. Some were found to have property or income elsewhere but chose to solicit alms for additional income. In several briefings, city authorities stated that they planned to track these individuals and, if necessary, prosecute them under existing laws or remove them from the city altogether.


A detailed socioeconomic survey was proposed for early 2025 to re-classify the street population by income, origin, and work capacity. The aim was to distinguish between those in need of rehabilitation and those engaging in deliberate misrepresentation.


One unanticipated complication came from outside the city. In December 2024, Indore authorities declared their intent to file FIRs against citizens found giving money to beggars. This policy triggered a visible migration of beggars from Indore and surrounding cities to Nagpur.


Police and railway station authorities reported increased arrivals from Indore, Ujjain, and Dewas. Several individuals acknowledged during screening that they had relocated after anti-begging crackdowns in their home cities.

This external inflow placed additional strain on Nagpur’s already limited capacity. NMC officials noted that while they could manage internal rehabilitation, their systems were not designed to absorb a regional migration of destitute populations.


By the end of 2024, an estimated 450 persons were housed in various shelter facilities, including the Aastha centre and older government homes. The rest of the population, close to or over 1,000 individuals, continued to live on pavements, under flyovers, or in parks.


While the visible presence of beggars had reduced from 2019 levels, city officials agreed that the numbers had stabilised rather than declined. In early 2025, the city was preparing for a fresh headcount as part of a renewed drive to reduce begging through structured intervention.



Structural and Operational Challenges

Structural and Operational Challenges in Beggar Rehabilitation
Structural and Operational Challenges in Beggar Rehabilitation

The city’s model achieved partial results, but several systemic weaknesses remained unaddressed. Infrastructure development was delayed.


The three new centres proposed in 2022 were still in planning by late 2024. The single main rehabilitation centre, Aastha, operated near full capacity, with little room for expansion or intake of new residents. Temporary facilities lacked the same level of services and training infrastructure.

The legal framework also created ambiguity. While the SMILE scheme promoted voluntary rehabilitation, the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act retained punitive provisions. Courts had not ruled on its validity in Maharashtra, and so enforcement continued under its mandates. This caused confusion in implementation. Those detained by police and sent to the traditional beggar home often returned to the streets after release, lacking exposure to any skill training or support. In contrast, those admitted to Aastha received structured care, but only if referred or admitted under voluntary terms.

Funding was another challenge. Initial grants from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment helped establish the pilot, but operating costs were increasingly reliant on the municipal budget and CSR funding.


In 2023, a temporary funding gap led to delays in the procurement of kitchen supplies and training materials. Donations from a local supermarket chain filled the shortfall, but the episode revealed vulnerabilities in the financial planning for long-term operations. Municipal staff stated that more predictable funding was required if the project was to scale effectively and reach all of Nagpur’s street-dwelling population.



There were also practical challenges in retaining residents after their rehabilitation. Some left the shelter voluntarily after completing training, only to return to street life within weeks due to unstable job placements or lack of affordable housing.


A few faced substance dependence or mental health issues that could not be fully treated in the available facilities. The programme lacked a structured follow-up mechanism. No city-wide tracking system was in place to monitor the progress of individuals post-rehabilitation. While Aastha staff tried to stay in touch with former residents informally, the absence of formal records limited long-term outcome evaluation.


Civil society participation helped bridge some of these gaps. Local NGOs, educational institutions, and business owners contributed in kind through clothing drives, training equipment, and awareness campaigns. Sahyadri Foundation maintained partnerships with volunteer groups to conduct workshops and provide mentorship.


These partnerships played a key role in maintaining daily services at the shelter. However, the broader need for shelter and care in the city far exceeded what NGOs alone could provide.


The visibility of the beggar population varied by season and event. During major conferences or visits, temporary removals occurred, only for the same individuals to reappear weeks later.

This cycle of displacement without long-term placement created a pattern that observers noted as unsustainable. Residents and civil society volunteers began advocating for longer-term planning, such as halfway houses, employment linkages, and targeted housing policies.


Nagpur’s experience also highlighted demographic patterns in the street population. Among those admitted to Aastha, a significant number had prior employment histories in informal sectors like construction, vending, or agricultural labour.


Migration played a key role. Individuals often arrived from rural Vidarbha and adjoining states in search of work and found themselves homeless after job loss, injury, or family estrangement.


Female beggars included widows, abandoned women, and members of traditional nomadic communities. Some instances of trafficking and forced begging were identified, although not extensively documented in official reports. The diversity of reasons for begging made it difficult to apply a uniform solution.

The police and NMC acknowledged that certain groups, including transgender individuals, elderly wanderers, and seasonal nomads, might not fit into the current shelter model. Plans were discussed to create special outreach units for these categories, though implementation remained pending.


Nagpur’s attempt at beggar rehabilitation from 2019 to 2024 brought several innovations and exposed long-standing gaps in urban welfare planning.


The establishment of the Aastha shelter under SMILE created a working prototype that prioritised dignity, skills, and reintegration over detention.


Hundreds of individuals benefited from housing, healthcare, and job placement. Some were reconnected with their families, others moved into independent livelihoods, and many gained their first identity documents in years.


At the same time, the city did not meet its stated goal of becoming beggar-free. The visible presence of street dwellers remained, and new arrivals complicated progress.


Infrastructure failed to keep pace with need, legal contradictions slowed down enforcement-rehabilitation alignment, and funding fluctuations threatened service continuity. Data tracking, follow-up, and post-rehabilitation support were identified as key gaps.

By early 2025, the city administration was preparing for another coordinated census and the expansion of shelter infrastructure. If implemented with consistency, those efforts could offer wider access to rehabilitation and prevent relapse. Nagpur’s experience showed that individual interventions work but must be supported by systems, partnerships, and stable funding to have a lasting impact.



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