International Journal of Law

Authors
Dr. BK Das

Abstract
At one point of time it was thought that the state is mainly concerned with the law and order as well protection life and property of the citizen, in the nineteenth century laissez faire became the political gospel, individual enterprise governed without interference of the state. The philosophy of minimum government interference in the economic affairs and maximum free enterprise of individual brought more human misery. Again the philosophy of Collectivism brought a new situation under which wealth concentrated in few hands and the weaker section of the society suffered a lot. The dogma of collectivism emerged the concept of social justice and welfare state. Welfare state is a concept in which government plays very important role in protecting socio-economic well-being of its citizen. Since independence Government is playing an important role to render justice to its people in every aspect of life. In the light of constitutional philosophy begging is treated as antithesis to the social policy. Despite many welfare programmes begging remained unabated. Without going into moralities or immoralities involved in begging, some states have passed legislation and declared begging is a crime. In this article, an attempt is made to discuss on the anti-begging laws in India.