Summary: Increase of Beggars in Major Cities of India – Key Reasons

The rise in the number of beggars in major Indian cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad is driven by a mix of economic, social, and structural factors:

Main Reasons

1. Rural Poverty & Migration
   • Farmers, landless laborers, and rural poor migrate to cities due to crop failure, debt, and lack of jobs.
   • Many fail to find stable urban employment and end up begging.
2. Unemployment & Informal Work Crisis
   • Growth of contractual and informal jobs with low wages.
   • Job losses due to automation, economic slowdown, and pandemics push vulnerable workers into poverty.
3. High Cost of Urban Living
   • Rising rent, food prices, healthcare, and transport costs make survival difficult for low-income groups.
   • Even working poor may resort to begging.
4. Lack of Social Security Coverage
   • Many homeless people lack ration cards, Aadhaar linkage, pensions, or health insurance.
   • Migrants often excluded from welfare schemes.
5. Disability, Old Age & Illness
   • Elderly, disabled, and chronically ill individuals without family support depend on begging.
   • Mental health issues remain largely untreated.
6. Family Breakdown & Domestic Violence
   • Abandonment, abuse, and broken families force women and children onto the streets.
7. Urban Inequality
   • Cities show sharp contrast between wealth and extreme poverty, increasing visible begging.
8. Organized Begging Networks (in some cities)
   • Trafficking and forced begging of children and disabled persons by criminal groups.

Overall Insight

The increase in beggars reflects deep-rooted urban poverty, migration stress, weak social protection, and unequal development, not just individual failure. Addressing it requires jobs, affordable housing, universal welfare access, rehabilitation, and mental healthcare, not punishment.