Bombay Prevention of Beggary Act 1959 
Red Book
Red Book

About: The unconstitutional Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 criminalises begging and targets people for being homeless or unemployed despite “the relief of the disabled and unemployable” being a state responsibility. The state penalises the poor for being poor.

The Act was formulated with the objective of keeping the streets of then Bombay clear of the destitute, leprosy patients or the mentally ill so they could be sent into institutions. Section 10 (struck down) gives a chief commissioner powers to order the immediate, indefinite detention of any person detained in a certified institution who is considered “blind, a cripple or otherwise incurably helpless”.

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