Begging or business?

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Kester Aburam Koankye, Accra (Ghana), 11 January 2010

Begging for alms on the streets of Accra is becoming a viable and lucrative business for some foreigners who claim to have traveled from countries in North Africa such as Niger. They would rather beg than learn some trade that would provide them their livelihood and some dignity.

In doing this, they also involve very healthy youth when they could be engaging in some productive venture. Some also use children, some as young as five years, as a bait to beg for them. What is worrying, however, is that while these adults sit back sometimes under shady trees, the children are on the streets begging for them to enjoy. This is contrary to the provisions of Section 91 of the Children’s Act, 1998, which states that “the minimum age for the engagement of a person in hazardous work is 18 years”.

A study of the begging trade in the municipality has shown that the business thrives around children trafficked from some deprived communities who never profit personally from their lucrative daily takings and who are sometimes beaten to make them objects of greater pity. Interviews conducted by this reporter has revealed that economic hardship is the commonest excuse most of those begging for alms give for taking to the streets.

They complain that due to this economic hardship their standard of living is low and coming by money and three square meals a day is difficult. Most of the people the this reporter spoke to said begging for alms was the best alternative to living in extreme poverty without any livelihood, apart from engaging in robbery and seeking for help from close relatives.

“Begging for alms is an act considered by many cultures in Ghana as disgraceful and degrading but those who live in extreme poverty such as these foreigners have no option but to beg for alms,” a hawker said.

Before the only beggars found on the streets of Accra either suffered from visual impairment or were physically challenged. Madam Stella Adu, a food vendor, complained that some of these less endowed people preferred being on the streets than having a decent job.

“If one gives them capital to start a business, they spend the money and go back on the street again”, she said. She added that learning a craft was something many of them loathe. Others are on the streets because they earn more from self-employment.

01 March 2010, 11:32

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