Visakhapatnam: The rise in the number of beggars in the city is like a blot on Visakhapatnam’s ‘smart city’ image, the various initiatives of the government failing to counsel and rehabilitate them.
With the intervention of the Child Helpline and NGOs, many children have been rescued and rehabilitated, but adults and the elderly are not ready to be part of mainstream, which will involve shunning begging, an easy way to earn money.
“We have somehow been able to bring down child begging. But the adult beggars, whose number is increasing, are not ready to give it up, despite offers of employment and other options from the government, NGOs and charity organisations,” said district child protection officer A. Satyanarayana.
According to sources, there are around 900 beggars in the city, most of them working in groups in an organised manner. The women hire babies and pretend to be mothers, seeking alms. Beggars from other districts and neighbouring states have also been infiltrating the city, seeing that there is good scope here for begging. The civic body’s attempt to keep the beggars in shelters and reform them has turned futile.
B. Naresh Kumar, founder and president of Generation Yuva, an organisation working to bring beggars into the mainstream, said that his organisation was ready to offer jobs with a salary of Rs 5,000 a month with other facilities, but no adult and elder beggars wanted to opt for it.
“Our survey showed that during a festival season, beggars, who usually frequent Simhachalam, earn about Rs 1,500-2,000 a day, and on regular days, at least Rs 300-500 a day. Some physically challenged persons were even hiring an assistant, paying them Rs 200 per day to push their wheel chairs,” he added.
He suggested that there be strict legislation that would stop the practice if properly implemented; that beggars be counselled, and most of all, that people stop giving alms to stop the begging menace.
