03/08/2021 - Government Policies

Please review mam/sir 

Thanks 

KEY POINTS

·        The Supreme Court recently issued notice seeking a direction to restrain beggars and vagabonds/homeless from begging on traffic junctions to avoid the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

·        It required, instead, a welfare response from the state.

·        When decisions about criminalisation are being taken by the legislature the issue sought to be addressed might be better suited to a welfare response.

·        Criminalisation of beggary served only to invisibilise beggars without doing anything to address the structural deprivations that drove people to beg.

·        Socio-economic marginalisation and poverty may frequently make people susceptible to exploitation, whether through poorly paid/unpaid labour, trafficking and sex work, or indeed, begging.

·        It is important to ensure that pimps, brothel owners, and traffickers are held criminally liable for sexually exploiting a person.

·        Equally important is to create alternative, providing requisite education and skills, and to have social security nets.

·        Focusing on the welfare aspect of exploitative practices also sheds light on structural forms of impoverishment, and on who is most likely to be exploited as a result.

·        When evaluating the function or necessity of a criminalisation response to something that is essentially or even partly a welfare issue, it is crucial to question whose interests the law does, in fact, serve. 

Please Review.