Move follows rising incidents of attacks on the homeless who are unable to change their unkempt looks

To the best of their knowledge, they had broken no laws. Then why did the police want them? Around 300 homeless persons making a living as beggars and street vendors got a rude shock when the police summoned them to the Pushkara Ghat on the banks of the Godavari at 10.30 p.m. on Thursday.

As soon as they reached the Ghat, a dozen barbers descended on them and began cutting their hair and shaving their beards. The police had initiated this “image-building” exercise to prevent attacks on vagrants, who were being mistaken for kidnappers. Superintendent of Police (Urban) B. Rajakumari said, “We have taken up this drive in view of the rising number of attacks on the mentally disturbed, beggars, and people roaming in the villages and other areas with long beards. These attacks have become more frequent in the State of late.”

Shelter too

She told The Hindu that the police launched this drive as a preventive measure, and these beggars and street vendors were from different parts of the region, including Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Krishna, Guntur and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, and from Kothagudem in Telangana.

All those subjected to the exercise were given bread and milk, and many were temporarily moved to the Swarnandhra Home for the Aged, run by the Goutami Jeevakarunya Sangham. They will be provided accommodation there until the attacks stop. The local association of Naayi Brahmins (barber community) has done the haircuts and shaves free, police sources said.

Several homeless persons who had come to the city and surrounding towns to seek alms during the Godavari Pushkarams in 2014 had settled down here.

The police, after checking their origins, asked them to return to their native places. Those who said they did not have the bus fare were given some money from the department coffers. The others were sent to the old age home.

“I came to the city about 10 years ago and I am living here as a ragpicker. But for the past three years, I have not been able to move around in the city as one of my legs got fractured. Then I started begging. I would get a hair cut only once in a year or two years as I did not want to waste my money on it,” said Satyanarayana, one of the beneficiaries.