Legality of a Begging Ban
By Faizer Shaheid-2017-12-27(faizer@live.com)
Folk carrying begging bowls has been a constant irritation in and around the city of Colombo and has caused considerable annoyance among tourists. Moreover, many crimes have been committed by thieves in the guise of beggars. Beggars have been a regular sight and are often a nuisance to bystanders and tourists sauntering about the city. They would stand by your side at eateries gaping with outstretched hands or with a stick for support or begging bowl thrown at your face in the bus.
In some instances, outside religious places, they may grab your feet and plead for money and if it is a foreigner, they may follow the latter for as long as he or she walks until he is given some money. House-to-house begging has dropped to a great extent, mostly due to residents not acceding to their pleas and due to increased effectiveness of other modes of begging. Even then, scathing diatribes become inevitable at the hands of beggars sometimes.
It gets even worse when these beggars take to the roads when traffic lights turn red. They would tap the shutters of cars, each time the cars stop and hope passengers would be generous. Many an accident has been caused much to the detriment of innocent drivers due to the recklessness of beggars on roads.
Rackets
In today's context, many rackets are run by individuals and groups to collect as much money as possible. On occasions, these rackets involve smuggling and various other heinous criminal activities. One such racket that was frequently reported on social media was regarding three people including a child pleading with decent people of their inability to travel back to Nuwara Eliya.
The racket was exposed after the culprits were seen repeating the same story for many days in the same areas of Colombo.
Many such stories have been reported and thanks to social media, more and more beggars have been exposed over time. The use of children, particularly infants, has been reported to the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) but the practice continues. It gets even worse when those very children grow up to be trained beggars. It has also been pointed out in some of my previous articles how some beggars function in rings and gangs and how children become easy recruits.
The rings grow to become crime syndicates, very easily escaping the suspicion of victims.
Smugglers, kidnappers, robbers and extortionists are born of such begging rackets, and some of these rings often engage in transnational organized crime. Drug trafficking and human trafficking are common among such crime rings operating in the guise of beggars.
The Beggars Story
While beggars have indeed proved to be a nuisance, they have also proved to be a needy lot. Not all beggars operate in rings or become a part of crime syndicates. In fact, there are those who are genuinely needy. They too embark on similar 'expeditions' to earn money. They too eye gullible targets and nag them until they collect a large sum of money.
Some of them have medical conditions which prevent them from working and have families dependant on them , which means, they are compelled to beg. Others may have children languishing in hospitals with medical conditions and are desperate for money to fund operations, or perhaps some of them are older people who have become homeless, or former criminals who have been rehabilitated and have found it difficult to find a job.
The Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development has pointed out that there are approximately 3,600 beggars operating in Colombo, out of which only about 600 are said to be genuine beggars. That is one-sixth of the total figure. It proves how the begging industry has thrived over the years and proved to be enormously propitious to those who wish to exploit it.
Previous initiative
The decision to ban begging in the streets of Colombo may seem welcome, but it is not the first time such a mission was embarked on. A similar initiative was embarked on by the previous regime in February 2014 in an ambitious attempt to beautify Colombo. They were successful to a great extent and transferred many of the beggars to Rideegama in Ambalanthota. There had been many human rights concerns that were raised at the time, to which, the Government had apt responses.
For example, Article 14 (h) of the Constitution guarantees the freedom of movement to every individual who can identify as a citizen of Sri Lanka. Such a provision would in general guarantee that beggars could saunter around any park or any public road as they prefer. However, the rights guaranteed under Article 14 are restricted by Article 15 (7). The right can be restricted by law in the interests of national security, public order, and protection of public health or morality and to meet the requirements of the general welfare of a democratic society.
Being so, the Vagrants Ordinance becomes immediately operative in restricting the movement of beggars. Section 3 (1) (a) of the Vagrants Ordinance expressly prohibits any person who is able to seek employment but wilfully refuses to do so, from wandering about seeking alms or begging. It also prohibits the employment of any family member from begging too. An exception is availed only for priests and pilgrims pursuing their religious vows.
Further to this, Section 3 (2) also permits any Police Officer to arrest any person deemed to be idle and disorderly without any warrant.
The Vagrants Ordinance decrees a punishment of 14 days for a first time arrest, 30 days for a second time arrest and four months for a third arrest or subsequent arrest. As most of the persons will be first time arrestees, the rehabilitation programme could only be carried out for 14 days. However, the programme proved to be effective in striking fear into the hearts of beggars and therefore, begging had vastly reduced.
Although begging had reduced, the begging population in Colombo had once again begun to grow after the new Government in January 2015 became less concerned about Colombo's beautification.
Tourists had begun complaining, and the US even issued a travel advisory to all of its citizens regarding alleged scams when travelling to Sri Lanka.
For the whole of 2017, the Ministry of Megapolis and Western Development speculated that beggars would be banned from Colombo at some point, and it was only early this month that the Ministry firmly announced that begging would be banned from Colombo from the beginning of January 2018.
However, there is a legal obstacle to this initiative. Unlike in the previous initiative, this initiative involves a ban. A blanket prohibition of begging in Colombo goes a step further than mere arrest and rehabilitation as required by the Vagrants Ordinance.
If it is the Vagrants Ordinance that the Ministry had implied, then it must be premeditated that he had only intended to enforce a law which had existed for over a century.
If the Ministry intends to go further than the present law, then the Ministry must introduce new laws. At best, the Ministry could issue a circular calling for the law on begging to be in full force in the city of Colombo. Anything more would require fresh legislation through the Provincial Councils or through Cabinet.
Persisting Issues
Whether the Ministry will seek to enforce existing legislation, or introduce fresh legislation, it can work to reduce begging on the streets. However, begging has become more and more sophisticated at present. However, the new art of begging has more 'dignified' people involved. Many scammers are running from door-to-door, sometimes intimidating, asking for funds to aid a non-existent charity programme or selling fake raffle draw tickets.
It is not to be mistaken that this too is a form of begging and must be dealt with at a higher level.
Although, it may be much easier to cleanse the city of Colombo of the poorer and less dignified persons who indulge in begging, begging at a more dignified level will not be easy to stop. Nonetheless, such acts too could be reported through the Vagrants Ordinance and it is paramount that members of a household report any such activity to the Police. It is paramount that the Ministry of Law and Order and Police, act on such scams to prevent crimes.
Conclusion
The initiative of the Ministry appears positive, although it is merely re-launching the programme initiated by the previous Government. Perhaps, the claimed refurbishment of the Rideegama Detention Centre in Ambalanthota may make a better impact. The problem is, it is still uncertain how the Ministry plans to introduce a ban and how the Ministry plans to enforce it. We have to wait and see how this project is deployed and how effective it will be.
(The writer is a political analyst and an independent researcher of Laws. He holds a Postgraduate Degree in Human Rights and Democratization from the University of Colombo and an Undergraduate Degree in Law from the University of Northumbria, United Kingdom)
