Unjust to call homeless persons ‘parasites’ seeking freebies: Ex-bureaucrats to Justice Gavai
It was wrong to describe petitions seeking facilities for homeless persons as an attempt to secure ‘freebies’ for idle and lazy persons, they said.
It is utterly unjust to stigmatise homeless persons as “parasites” who are in the quest for freebies, a group of retired civil servants and diplomats said in an open letter to Supreme Court Justice BR Gavai.
The Constitutional Conduct Group was referring to remarks made by Gavai on February 12 while hearing a petition demanding that homeless persons be provided adequate shelter facilities.
“Sorry to say, but by not making these people part of mainstream society, are we not creating a class of parasites?” Gavai had reportedly said.
He added: “Because of freebies, when elections are declared… people are not willing to work. They are getting free rations without doing any work! Would it not be better to make them part of mainstream society so that they can contribute to the nation?”
“Freebies” is a term frequently used by critics of certain welfare benefits such as subsidised or free foodgrains, public transport and concessions in electricity bills.
The group said in its letter that homeless persons “are people who have been pushed into destitution because the state has failed in its duties [elaborated in the Directive Principles of State Policy of the Constitution] to secure a life with dignity for every citizen”.
“These duties include affordable housing, decent work, protection from domestic and sexual violence, social security, food and nutrition, health care and, additionally for children, the right to education in safe and happy conditions,” the group said in its letter.
The homeless women and men in the cities are the “most unprotected” among informal workers, the group of retired bureaucrats and diplomats said. “They are compelled each day to offer their labour to anyone who is willing to hire them…They do hard labour at shamefully low wages,” they added.
The group said that it was wrong to hold that the petitions before the court were an attempt to secure “freebies” for idle and lazy persons.
“Freebies” would imply an illegitimate claim on the state exchequer, the former bureaucrats contended.
The group said it was “strange” that loan write-offs and tax holidays to large companies or the income tax exemption granted to persons in the “top income decile of the country” were not considered as freebies while public expenditure on housing, social security, work protection and health care “of the most dispossessed of our citizens” was considered freebies.
“The homeless people are constantly exposed to the risk of life while living on the pavements and the streets and the threat to life is particularly imminent in the severe and biting cold winter, especially in northern India,” the open letter read.
They added that the Supreme Court had previously ruled that the state must discharge its core obligation to comply with Article 21 of the Constitution by providing night shelters for vulnerable and homeless persons.
