Govt targets beggars

Goes for survey, plans rehabilitation in 5 years
The government has initiated a programme to make the country beggar free within five years, by rehabilitating beggars through employment and other incentives, reports The daily Star.
A core committee for the Beggar Rehabilitation Programme under the social welfare ministry was formed early this month with Gazi Mohammad Nurul Kabir as the committee’s chairman.
The committee chairman is also the managing director of National Foundation for Development of Disabled Persons, a government agency which will have involvement in the programme.
The committee is now working out an implementation strategy for the programme, said Nurul Kabir. The social welfare ministry will conduct a countrywide survey to find out how many beggars there are, and what are their physical conditions are like, as thousands of physically challenged poor people take up begging as a profession, he said.
“We might seek cooperation from the NGOs to conduct the survey which will be completed by the end of June. The Bureau of Statistics will also help us,” he said adding that six years ago the country had an estimated 7,00,000 beggars, but the number has increased since then.
“We will also find the causes that drive people into begging, and will find the section of the population who are more susceptible to taking up begging in future,” he said.
Social Welfare Minister Enamul Haque Mostafa Shahid told The Daily Star yesterday, “The ministry already formed a 10-member core committee to implement the Beggar Rehabilitation Programme for making the country beggar free, but it might take some time to succeed.”
The programme will be implemented in two phases, in the first phase the nationwide survey of beggars will be carried out, and in the second phase the beggars will be rehabilitated. The ministry allocated about Tk 14 crore for the project, ministry sources said.
The process of rehabilitation will differ based on the beggars’ physical conditions. The ministry will provide vocational training for younger able bodied beggars, while cash incentives like monthly government allowances will be offered to physically challenged and aged beggars, while child beggars will get education opportunities, said the committee chairman.
The government will also provide interest free and low interest loans to beggars who are willing and able to run small businesses.
The government also plans to establish eight rehabilitation centres with dormitories, for physically challenged and aged beggars. Male and female beggars will be rehabilitated in separate centres.
Last month, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) rounded up 150 beggars in the city, and sent them out of the capital, as a part of its drive to make the city beggar free.
Due to natural and man made disasters, the number of poor people increased, and many of them took up begging and some other unethical activities, said DMP Commissioner AKM Shahidul Haque.
In 2008, the government enacted a law banning begging, and making it punishable by a month in jail.

Courtesy of The Daily Star