There is as yet no final pronouncement by any Court on Fundamental Rights of beggars.
Their rights are bound to be a little different than rights of other citizen.
Some of these rights can be as under:-
1) Right to a place for sleeping at night. It can be on a footpath or under a flyover.
2) They sit near some temple or some religious place and beg for alms from visitors of a temple or any other religious place. Some place should be earmarked near religious places for them to sit and beg.
3) Whether they have right to beg at road crossings in big cities or not, is a debatable issue.
4) Housing Societies guarded with iron gates, usually put a sign board saying no "No entry for beggars".
The area where they can ask for fundamental rights appear to be limited to point 1 and 2 above.
Reality Check
The fact that the beggars live and they are in considerable numbers, cannot be denied.
They cannot be wished away.
They must have some rights in addition to normal fundamental rights of citizens.
Haresh Raichura
1194
