National Award-winning filmmaker Kireet Khurana recently announced The Invisible Visible, a documentary highlighting the plight of over 70 million destitute Indian citizens. Being shot across the country, the movie revolves around the vulnerable homeless people who are further criminalised as per the Bombay Beggary Prevention Act 1959, which enables police officers or any other person authorised on their behalf to arrest anyone found begging without any warrant.
Spreading awareness
The documentary, made in partnership with Tarique Mohammed's Koshish (a Tata Institute of Social Sciences affiliate) - a social organisation that works with the homeless, highlights how a section of our population has been left out in the cold to die or has been cramped into inadequate shelters. The latter leaves them vulnerable, as happened in the Muzaffarpur case, where hundreds of girls between the age of 6 and 15 were sexually exploited, tortured, and killed.
The film, which is scheduled for a mid-2022 release, aims to build support to repeal the Beggary Prevention Act, 1959, and hopes to act as a catalyst to implement the Supreme Court order to set up shelters for the homeless in every district.
"The Bombay Prevention of Begging Act of 1959 is primarily an anti-poor law and yet has been adopted by over 22 states. It basically criminalises the act of begging, without addressing basic issues like poverty and homelessness. It also legitimises the arrest of any person for up to three years without a warrant and gives limitless power to the police. If a person is convicted for the second time, then he/she could be detained for a period of over ten years! Can you imagine how much human potential could be salvaged if we could instead rehabilitate these underserved and dehumanised millions," asks Kireet, whose previous films have earned him several accolades, including six President's National Awards.
This film, he shares, is an attempt to sensitise the audience to the indignities the poor suffer every day right before our eyes. "The film also is a cry for more empathy-driven policies that could protect street children from trafficking," he concludes.