G20 meeting in Nagpur: Cops start clearing streets of beggars, homeless people; ‘told to return after 2 months’

Officials have denied any connection with the G20 meet but many homeless residing in various areas of the city, including Yashwant Stadium and Kasturchand Park, have said that they were asked to leave the city by officials who said that foreign dignitaries will be visiting the city.

“We were told that many ‘videshi’ (foreigners) will be visiting the city and so we must leave. We were told we could return two months later,” said Priti Bhosale, a member of the Pardhi community, who was forced to leave Nagpur for Amravati. Priti said that she lived with at least 10 other families at Yashwant Stadium for over three decades. She said she was told by officials that they could return after two months.

“The officials told us we could return in two months but we do not have any means to earn till then,” said Shahu Bhosale, who also left for Amravati earlier this month. He added that the community members did not have any access to land or jobs in the village and hence had migrated many years ago to earn a living. Shahu said that the authorities told them that if they returned, they would have to face criminal action and would be sent to beggars’ homes.

A civic official said that police and the civic body were approaching the persons, offering them assistance to leave for their hometowns or move to shelter homes. The infrastructure in the city, however, is far less to shelter those who will come within the police circular’s ambit and face displacement.

Nagpur was one of the two cities along with Mumbai chosen by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in January 2020 as part of a national campaign for a comprehensive rehabilitation of people engaged in beggary. The civic body had then identified 1,601 such people for rehabilitation. One shelter home was opened in April 2022 under the scheme but it has a capacity only for 150 males. Even those who are homeless often face action under the Bombay Prevention of Beggary Act. Civic officials said that six other shelter homes have the capacity to house 280 homeless persons.

“Citing the G20 summit, many cities have begun displacing its homeless population but instead of taking this opportunity and using funds to build proper infrastructure for them, authorities have chosen to take an easier route by warning them with criminal action and asking them to relocate,” said Mohammed Tarique, Director of Koshish-Field Action Project of Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Nilesh Kamble, programme officer of Koshish in Nagpur, said that the homeless from many spots in the city have been asked to leave including those from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

When asked how the police and civic body were identifying those who were homeless and those who were engaged in beggary as per the circular, Nagpur police commissioner Amitesh Kumar said that the police were being ‘sensitive’ and that no criminal action had been taken so far but the circular included those living with their families on the streets ‘even though they had other means of livelihood’.

Lawyer Disha Wadekar said that the targeting of communities who are wandering in search of livelihood is not limited to the police circular but dates back to the colonial era, which had enacted the Criminal Tribes Act, criminalising the communities. She said that the Habitual Offenders Act and such criminal action continues to be faced by nomadic and denotified communities. “Through these laws, there has been a systematic targeting of these communities creating a vicious cycle of stigma for them. They are pushed out of villages and not given an opportunity to earn their livelihood. Then, when they come to cities, even when they engage in traditional performances or use their limited means to sell flowers, creatively made toys, they are wrongly said to be begging for a livelihood and made to face criminal action,” Wadekar said.