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Beggar-Free Zones

Are they?

Helemul Alam
The capital now has three "beggar-free zones".
The areas are the diplomatic zone (Gulshan-Baridhara-Banani) and the streets from Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon to Bailey Road (via Ruposhi Bangla Hotel intersection) and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Radisson hotel.
The Department of Social Services (DSS) with the assistance of the two Dhaka city corporations has recently put up several signboards there, making the declaration.
However, like several DSS attempts in the past to check begging in the capital, the new move too appears to be a token one and not working.
Tramps were still seen at the spots as there was not a single person to restrict their entries.
Experts have termed such initiative by the government “unrealistic". They said putting up signboards alone could never
be the "real" solution to the problem.
The department's previous beggarrehabilitation efforts include a Tk 30 lakh pilot project taken in 2011.
Under the project, the department with the help of 10 non-government organisations conducted a survey on 10,000 beggars in the capital to rehabilitate them in the society with employment, education, training and shelter.
Later in 2012, 37 beggars were shifted to Mymensingh from the capital and each of them was given a rickshaw-van or Tk 5000 in cash.
The result of the experiment was discouraging as almost all of them fled the district and returned to their old profession in Dhaka later, sources said.
In most of the cases it was not being possible to rehabilitate the beggars in the capital, said a DSS official wishing anonymity, adding that they achieved "some success" outside Dhaka. Twenty-nine beggars in Jamalpur were rehabilitated in 2013 and they are now self-reliant, the official claimed.
Experts said the beggars keep coming back to the capital with the belief that the place offers them money more than any other place in the country does.
Apart from the fact that the beggars lack the required motivation to quit the practice, they also choose the capital to live in as they are "ashamed" of begging in their local areas, they added.
Meanwhile, about the move to restrict beggars' entry using signboards, Prof Nazrul Islam, an urban planning expert, told The Daily Star: "Instead of some specific areas, the entire city should be beggar-free."
He said the social welfare ministry, other concerned government departments and the NGOs should launch a "combined fight" against the problem.
Nazrul also said it was their duty
to come up with a "realistic" solution to the issue which also harms the image of the country.
Economist Qazi Kholikuzzaman Ahmed, chairman of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSP), said any isolated initiative would not be successful in solving a social problem like begging.
"A comprehensive plan based on a proper survey has to be taken for its implementation," he added.
On the other hand, the concerned officials of the project under whom the signboards have been put up admitted that without the help of law enforcing agencies they can never implement the decision alone.
They say they lack manpower for the job.
A source in the DSS said the entire project was being run by only two DSS officials who were discharging the new responsibilities as additional duties.
AKM Fazluzzoha, director of the project, Bhikkhabrittitey Niojito Jonogoshthir Punorbashon O
Bikolpo Kormosangsthan, admitted that the monitoring was indeed a "herculean task forthem"
In order to discourage the beggars, he advised the people in those areas not to offer them any financial assistance.
In late October, when the restriction was imposed, the DSS and law enforcers in four raids held 16 beggars and 133 streets children there for their rehabilitation.
At first, they were taken to Bhabaghure Asroy Kendra, a rehabilitation centre, in Mirpur. Later, they were shifted to Dustho Shishu Proshikkhan O Punorbashon Kendra in Gazipur, said DSS sources.
Many of the beggars would soon be taken to Dhola Asroy Kendra in Mymensingh for their further rehabilitation, added the sources.
Experts however are not quite hopeful about the success of the initiative and said "timely" measures are must to end the problem as the number of the beggars in the capital is rising every day.