HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has once again set its eyes at making the city beggar-free.
The civic body, along with city traffic police and NGOs, plans to rehabilitate as many as 500 children found begging at major traffic junctions in the city. These kids would be sent to rehabilitation centre for counselling.
The corporation, however, could not elicit much response from the public in its earlier initiative ‘Make Hyderabad Beggar-Free.’
The initiative, launched in collaboration with some NGOs last year, could not do much either in educating people to refrain from giving alms to beggars or report them to the authorities.
“While the corporation gave us enough moral support, it did not aid us financially. Being an NGO, we ran out of funds soon and we could not pursue the campaign,” said Dr Ramaiah, president of Federation of NGOÂ’s for Beggar-free Society.
The GHMC officials, meanwhile, blamed the NGOs for demanding exorbitant amounts. “We are not asking them to do a free service but still the quotation should be reasonable,” said V Bhaskara Chary, additional commissioner, GHMC.
One NGO identified so far
The corporation has now agreed to pay for the food expenditure per child amounting to around Rs 95 for food and Rs 125 for monthly hygienic expenditure. “We are in talks with the traffic department and NGOs for taking up the responsibility. So far, we have found only one NGO capable of sheltering 500 children,” said Bhaskara Chary. It is the Amma Nanna Annada Ashramam (ANAA) foundation that has been selected as of now by the civic body to participate in the initiative.
“We are constructing a new shelter with a capacity of around 500 that would be used to shelter child beggars from the city,” said Dr Gattu Shankar, Founder of the ANAA foundation.
The public, meanwhile, believes that the only way to reduce the number of beggars on the street is through education.
“There is an entire generation of begging community that is thriving here and the only way to stop is to educate and transform the next generation,” said K Mohan, a resident.
George Rakesh Babu, founder of a city-based NGO feels that mere counselling will not help. “There should be strict policing to stop the beggar mafia,” he said.
Survey points at big racket
A 2016 survey conducted by a voluntary organisation has seen over 14,000 beggars residing in the city, of which over Rs 2,000 were identified to be fake. The survey also claimed that there could be several who have an average income of over Rs 50,000.