BEGGARS

BEGGING for alms is becoming a viable and lucrative business for many people with disabilities in Accra instead of going to learn some trade that would provide them their livelihood and some dignity.
In doing this, they also involve very healthy youth in this business 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, the children are on the streets begging for them to enjoy from the toils of this minors.
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 many communities in Accra who never profit personally from their lucrative daily takings and who are sometimes beaten to make them objects of greater pity.
The section defines hazardous work as work which poses a danger to the health, safety or morals of a person”.
These include going to sea, mining and quarrying, porterage of heavy loads, working in manufacturing industries where chemicals are produced or used, places where machines are used and work in drinking bars, hotels and places of entertainment where a person may be exposed to immoral behaviour.
A survey conducted by the Daily Graphic has revealed that economic hardship was the commonest excuse most of those begging for alms give for taking to the streets to beg for alms.
They complain that due to this economic hardship, their standard of living is low and coming by money and three square meals a day has become difficult.
Most of the people the Daily Graphic 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 mostly considered by many cultures in Ghana as disgraceful and degrading but most of us who live in extreme poverty, vis avis the nature of the economy have no option than to beg for alms.
It is necessary for every man to work in order to earn some income and his or her daily bread," some beggars explained.
Many of the beggars who can be are found on the streets of Accra either suffer from vision impairment or are physically challenged and their children go round begging for alms.
While many of these needy people have decided not to rely on anybody to make ends meet and would rather learn a craft or sit in wheel chairs and sell, others have capitalised on their condition to beg for alms.
Madam Stella Adu, a food vendor, complained that some of these less endowed people prefer being on the streets than having a decent job.
"If one gives them capital to start a business, they delight in spending the money and going back on the street again," she said.
She added that teaching them craft was something many of them loathe. Others are on the streets because they earn more from begging than being in self-employment.
Thus many of them have strong and able bodied persons serving as their guides and aides.
One wonders why many of the beggars do not want to learn a trade that would give them their livelihood but many of them complained that their relatives were not helpful to them or they had lost their bread winners in the family.
Some children, who beg on the street, are there mainly because of the lack of parental guidance.
According to an eight-year-old boy found begging on the street, he had been compelled to be on the streets begging because his parents were divorced, and each had gone their separate ways so he had no other choice than to beg to make ends meet.
"This problem has landed me into the begging business. Even though I wish to stop and at least go to school, my relatives are not prepared to invest their money in my education, “he told the Daily Graphic.
The Co-ordinator of the Care Reform Initiative (CRI) at the Department of Social Welfare, Mrs Helena Obeng Asamoah, told the Daily Graphic that the unit was embarking on outreach programmes to take children get off the streets in the metropolis.
In a related development, the Focal Person of the project, Mr Alois K. Mohl, said the unit had been able to sponsor about 150 street children in school.
“The unit also looks at the calibre of street children and their capacity in terms of livelihood development, ” he said.
He added that, an Italian non-governmental organisation (NGO), Ricerca en Cooperazione was providing some support for the project.