An anti-beggary drive in Indore of Madhya Pradesh showed that not everyone in rags may be poor.
According to District Magistrate Shivam Verma, Indore is a "beggar-free city", and the district officials carry out such drives to rehabilitate those seeking alms in public.
The Indore administration has imposed a legal ban on begging, giving alms, and even purchasing goods from them in order to make the city, celebrated as the country's cleanest for the past one decade, beggar-free.
During one such recent drive, the officials came across a leprosy-afflicted man whose net worth could be in lakhs. Media reports have identified him as Mangilal.
According to media reports, a 50-year-old leprosy patient, rescued from the Sarafa area based on information from the public, who makes a living by seeking alms while moving about on a wheeled board, owns property worth several lakh rupees, including three houses, a car and three autorickshaws.
Officials said he also lends money in the bullion market and earns a good amount as income.
Women and Child Development Department official Dinesh Mishra, who is the nodal officer for the campaign to eradicate begging and make the state's commercial capital beggar-free, said, "This Saturday, we specifically sent a team to apprehend him. His name is Mangilal, 55 to 60 years old, and he is a leprosy patient, begging continuously for the past eight to ten years."
"We have learned that this man owns three concrete houses, including a three-story building. In addition, he has three auto-rickshaws that he rents out. The man also owns a car in which he goes begging. He has even hired a driver for this purpose. He begs while moving about on a wheeled board."
"Since he is a leprosy patient, the government has allotted him a 1 BHK house. Information regarding this is still being gathered... the property he owns might cost around Rs 1 crore... We have sent him to the shelter home... This entire matter has been reported to the Collector, and he will give instructions after reviewing the case," he said.
According to Mishra, the man, who has been begging since 2021, had lent ₹4-5 lakh to people in the bullion market in Indore and charges interest that nets him between Rs 1000-1200 per day. He also earns about ₹400 to 500 rupees daily from begging.
He is currently lodged in a shelter.
Is there more to his story?
However, according to Rupali Jain, president of Pravesh, an NGO working to eradicate beggary, there is more to the story than meets the eye. She claimed that the man did not amass his wealth by begging alone.
She explained that the man used to work as a mason until a few years ago, but was unable to continue after suffering severe damage to his fingers and feet due to leprosy.
Due to social and family discrimination, he began begging at night near Chaat Chowpatty in the Sarafa area, she said.
"We tried to convince this man twice in the last four years to stop begging. He did stop the practice for a while, but later went back to it," Jain said even as she underlined the difficulties in rehabilitating people with diseases that evoke intense social stigma.
