Beggary from bad to worse [Archives:2005/854/Business & Economy]
The phenomenon of beggary in the Yemeni society gets exacerbated due to sufferings of the poor families and the rise of unemployment rate, which causes the rapid proliferation of beggars in the capital and other main cities.
In the same respect, many younger boys and girls said they practice beggary in streets and extend their hands to people requesting them for help. They use all the wily methods and cunning styles to evoke other's sentiments in order to give them money.
Field studies showed that these children are victims of heartlessness of their parents who oblige them to beg and collect money under the pretext that they are unable to work but in need of money to meet their basic needs.
Parents do not take for granted the rights of their children and what will happen to them while practicing beggary.
The study confirmed that children hate such a profession due to being humiliated and insulted by the society that make them subjected to harassments. Child beggars are obliged to beg by their parents due to difficult economic conditions and the requirements of living. Parents do not take into account the negative consequences of the profession on the future of their kids.
To inquire more about the phenomenon, we asked Hassan Farhan Abdu, 15, who replied that since his father married another woman, he along with his mother and three brothers were left without anyone to sustain them, and his mother can not work because of her deteriorating health.
Hassan added that he felt himself compelled to beg, particularly after his father left his mother and her children to live in difficult economic conditions. He also mentioned that he gained over one thousand riyals daily which can meet their basic needs.
He cried: because of our economic difficulties, my father obliged me to beg in order to cover the expenses of our studies. When I started to practice such a profession, I could not acclimatize with it but the insistence of my father to leave us without a supporter forced me to practice beggary.
Ibtisam Nasser, 13, a primary school student, said she inherited the profession from her elder brother after he was obliged by her father to beg, but he practices beggary only during the summer vacation to accumulate some money for his study expenses.
Ibtisam adds: “I practice beggary during the summer vacation and I distribute my time to two shifts at the Republican and al-Thawrah Hospitals and sometimes at the bus stations. Every day I gain between 700 and 900 hundred riyals, and when my father finds that my brothers gain more than me, he becomes angry and accuses me of keeping some money with me.”
Another beggar Nabil Abdurrahim said he has ten brothers and sisters and his elder sister is a university student, and since his brother is out of work, he shoulders the responsibility of the family. He dropped school to practice beggary and one of his sisters works for a restaurant in order to help him meet the living standards of his family.
The field study indicated that there are many reasons behind the proliferation of beggary and the domains of the phenomenon are not taken seriously by the society. In the views of people, the phenomenon spreads like a communicable disease, mainly among younger children due to social, economic and political factors.
The study confirmed that the exacerbation of the phenomenon is attributed to some economic conditions closely relevant to some changes and the scanty income of families because of the lack of job opportunities and the rising demand of essential foodstuffs.
So, what is the role of the project of fighting beggary that monitor beggars, to take them and study their cases to suggest some possible solutions?
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[archive-e:854-v:13-y:2005-d:2005-06-27-p:b&e]
