In a welcome and profoundly pragmatic move, the latest census framework has opted to drop the archaic and separate classification of “beggars and vagrants” from its questionnaire. This is sound reasoning of the highest order.

After all, a Viksit Bharat has no conceptual or structural place for beggars; thus, refusing to codify them into statistical permanence is the first step toward administrative manifestation. Already, they stand diminished, less than five lakhs, an insignificant number, almost.

To be sure, casual observers might point to those figures still lingering at traffic intersections, hovering like persistent flies outside high-gloss glass facades of posh restaurants, where vigilant ushers swiftly shoo them away before they can offend the appetites of........

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