EVEN after authorities have put up signs and created beggar-free zones, begging is still rampant in different city areas. This newspaper ran a report on how authorities under the ‘Alternative Employment and Rehabilitation of People involved in Begging’ project tried to persuade beggars to stop begging and start living life differently. The multi-million taka project was launched by the Social Welfare Ministry in the fiscal year 2010-11 to bring the country’s beggars under an umbrella by providing them shelter and employment, but its progress is very slow till date due to the unbridled corruption of the concerned officials. The news report also added that the officials concerned of Department of Social Service [DSS] have already spent the lion’s portion of the project money in different side schemes, especially in the name of survey and research, instead of rehabilitating the beggars. The Ministry of Finance had also allocated Tk 12.47 crore for the project but the plan is yet to materialize. Currently, two pilot projects are going on — one in Mymensingh and another in Jamalpur — under the said mega project to survey the people engaged in begging. But nobody knows when the survey will be completed and when around 2,000 beggars of the areas will be actually rehabilitated. The Director General of DSS avoided comment over the issue. So far, the DSS has hung some signboards in the city declaring the Gulshan-Baridhara-Banani Diplomatic Zone, Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel to Bailey Road through Ruposhi Bangla Hotel intersection and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Radisson Hotel as beggar-free areas. In reality, beggars are still encountered in these areas and sometimes women are seen carrying babies on their laps while some others are seen walking with the help of small boys. Some hire babies in exchange for Tk 60 to 100 per day to run the business. It is now a well-organised and syndicated business by the powerful ones from behind the screen.The current scenario depicts another failure on the part of the government to deliver on promises it made to curb corruption and rehabilitate beggars. It comes as no surprise that ill-intentioned government officials have misused project funds for their own personal gain instead of applying the funds to help (according to NGO data) over half a million people. The poor ones must be helped, but not to allow them begging as a big business on the streets pursuing cars. This is the easy way of getting alms. But it is illegal under our law to allow beggars on the streets.
