As part of an initiative to make the city “begging-free,” the Mumbai Police has launched the Zero Beggars drive, which will be carried out all through this month. All police stations have been given orders to track down beggars and send them to a special home in Chembur after testing them for COVID-19.

In November last year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which had identified nearly 29,000 beggars, including women and children, had said that it was working on an action plan to make the city begging-free. The move had come nearly 10 months after the Union government had proposed a national campaign for comprehensive rehabilitation of beggars.