This old (2004) article in the Mid-Day confirms my thoughts. The beggar mentioned in the article earns upto Rs. 1000 per day, has a flat in Virar which he has rented out, has a bank account and has a plot of land in Solapur.
If you consider that the income is non-taxable, it is also very lucrative. Of course, the guy has to put in a lot of hardships (standing out in the hot sun or rain), apart from having a "beggar" tag attached.
Sometime ago I had noticed that these people seemed to have some kind of a hierarchical setup and were quite organized. It seemed to me that the traffic signals (probably the most valued spot for beggars) were assigned to appropriate people. In the morning, I would see a group of beggars arriving in rickshaw and one of them (a female) seemed to be assigning people to the "spots" where each would beg. Later, the female beggar would drive away to another spot.
Another aticle in the not so recent past stated that beggars "gift" begging "spots" as dowry for their daughter's marriages to the groom beggar.
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