A minister in southern India has been fired after 24 beggars died in one week at a camp for the destitute in the high-tech city of Bangalore. Karnataka social welfare minister D. Sudhakar was relieved of his post following the deaths of 24 beggars at the state-run camp in Bangalore in the past week, a government official said Saturday.
The deaths at the "Beggars' Colony" brought the number of deaths at the camp to 106 so far in August, more than double the tally of deaths in July and five times the total in April. Local media reports have described living conditions at the camp - one of the largest rehabilitation centres for the destitute in South India - as "pathetic" and dubbed the camp the "Auschwitz of Bangalore." Some of the beggars at the camp were reported to have died of food poisoning from a meal served to mark India's Independence Day public holiday last weekend, while others were said to have died from illnesses stemming from squalid living conditions.
Karnataka home minister V.S. Acharya, who visited the beggars' camp Friday, said doctors had certified the deaths as natural but added he had asked for a report "to ascertain the causes of such a (high) number of deaths." The camp was set up several decades ago to house and provide beggars with carpentry and other skills to keep them off the streets.
The camp has space for 900 people but 2,500 beggars are forced to share the space, resulting in unhygienic living conditions, officials said. Media reports said the camp had just two toilets for every 500 people. Despite India's fast economic growth, the country is scored by poverty and has many beggars.