Tk 12cr scheme taken for their rehabilitation
In an attempt to rehabilitate beggars and offer them a better living, the government is going to conduct a comprehensive census in the capital.
The Tk 12.47 crore scheme aims to provide accommodation to disabled paupers while the healthy ones would get opportunity for self-employment in their districts of origin.
The beggars will be issued identity cards inscribed with details of their physical and social conditions, sources at National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons (NFDDP) said.
The single-day census will be conducted soon to ascertain the number of beggars and build a duplication-free database for the government’s website, said Gazi Mohammad Nurul Kabir, managing director of NFDDP of social welfare ministry.
At least 70 non-government organisations (NGOs) have applied to the ministry to deal with the census and prepare the database with photographs. About 10 to 12 NGOs would be involved to conduct the census, said an official.
Md Iqbal Hossain, chief of the project dubbed “Rehabilitation and alternative employment opportunities for the beggars” told The Daily Star that they are scrutinising the applications of the NGOs.
Half of the programme budget will be spent for the survey. “We are yet unsure about how many beggars we can rehabilitate with the remainder of the fund,” added the project chief.
Officials said on the basis of age and ability, the government and NGOs will jointly rehabilitate them by providing training on carpentry, automobile repairing, bookbinding, bread or biscuit making, tailoring etc.
The rehabilitation programme would eventually be expanded to other divisional cities, they added.
The census would find out the reasons behind so many people taking up begging. “Natural disasters and poverty are pushing many to adopt begging and their number in urban areas is growing rapidly,” said Enamul Haque Mostafa Shaheed, minister for social welfare.
As many of these beggars belong to a ‘floating community’, surveyors will be required to complete the process within a day dividing the capital into ten zones, said Hossain adding, “This will require hundreds of surveyors reaching them with prescribed forms and digital cameras.”
The paupers would be sorted out within three age groups between one and twelve years, twelve and fifty and above. The survey would also reveal different categories such as disabled, children, women, professional and seasonal beggars.
According to a study conducted by nine national-level NGOs in December 2009, up to seven lakh people seek for alms at bus stands, railway stations, markets, court areas, traffic intersections and in front of temples, shrines and mosques.
About 54 percent of them are female, depicted the survey. Sixty-seven percent of them are involved in begging for poverty, 20 percent for disability and 10 percent took it as profession.
The study, derived from interviewing 1972 child and adult beggars, also found that 15 percent of them are involved in drug peddling in city and about 11 percent involved in mugging and snatching.
Seasonal beggars move to capital ahead of Eid or after natural disasters, including drought, flood and monga, said Qamrul Huda, programme manager of BEDO, an NGO involved with the survey.
A tramp on an average earns Tk 150 to 300 a day, said Raisul at the footbridge in Farmgate. Earnings rise on some occasions like public exams, Eid or religious festivals and also in front of graveyards during the weekends, he added.
Saddam Mia, a 14-year-old orphan from Rangpur, told this correspondent at Panthapath crossing that he used to work at a motor workshop.
“I left the job as I could not bear the torture of my employer. I met some friends begging on the thoroughfares. Now I spend time begging at traffic signals and sleep on the pavement,” said the young pauper.
Aliya Akhter from Gaforgaon brings her eight-year-old physically challenged son Sumon to Karwan Bazar pedestrian underpass every day and leaves him there for begging.
“My son cannot do anything without my help. When I came to Dhaka three years ago, I tried to get him admitted to school and open an opportunity for him,” said Aliya, adding “ But this [begging] remains the only option for him now.”
