HERAT CITY (Pajhwok): Poverty has increased and so the number of beggars due to growing insecurity across the country, residents of western Herat province say.
They say intensified fights in many parts of the country had affected people’s economic situation, particularly of Herat residents. The bad security situation has swelled population of beggars in the province.
The Heratis say thousands of families had arrived in Herat from neighboring provinces due to clashes and many of the displaced people begged due to absence of job opportunities.
Some of the beggars who are infected by diseases force passersby into paying some them some money.
Qadir Farhmand, a resident of Herat city, the provincial capital, said: “Most of the beggars annoy other people by forcing them into paying money.” People are obliged to pay some money to the beggars, he added.
He said most of the beggars were infected with infectious diseases and they transferred to the diseases to others upon touching or going close to them.
Nazir Ahmad, another resident of Herat, told Pajhwok Afghan News that increasing number of beggars could also be used by militants to carry out suicide attacks and drug traffickers for transferring narcotics.
He asked the government to generate job opportunities for the beggars, particularly for homeless poor women.
Meanwhile, a number of beggars in Herat said they were obliged to beg.
Zahra, 38, is one of the women begging every day on Herat city roads. “Help me in the name of God,” the words Zahra uses to say on seeing people every day to give her some money, but rarely some people respond.
“My son has been killed, I have to feed his five children and four children of my daughter, I have no option but to beg,” she said.
While tears coming down on her face, she said her grandchildren had been without food for the past several days.
She begs until late in the night so if some kind people pay her money, but some people even harass her instead of helping.
Zahra is not the only begging woman, but a large number of women in Herat suffer from poverty and have to beg for feeding their children.
On the other hand, security officials expressed concern over the increasing number of child beggars in Herat.
Herat police spokesman, Abdur Raouf Ahmadi, told Pajhwok Afghan News that besides begging, a number of children were involved in stealing too.
“These children are used for stealing and other crimes, last year we arrested eight children involved in such crimes,” he said.
He said some female beggars were also involved in crimes and their number was also high, but no incident committed by woman beggars had so far been registered with police.
Meanwhile, Basira Mohammadi, provincial acting labour and social affairs director, confirmed a large number of beggars existed in Heart.
She said a plan for collecting child beggars from Herat had been shared with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and UNICEF in 2011, but the plan was yet to be finalized
“We have no policy for collecting women beggars some of whom are suffering psychological problems and others are involved in different crimes,” she said.
Experts believe the growing number of beggars has unwanted consequences for society.
A social affairs expert, Enayatullah Enayat, said major causes of increasing number of beggars were poverty and joblessness.
“The government is responsible to first ensure security, generate job opportunities and then collect beggars from cities,” he said.
mds/ma
Views: 7
GET IN TOUCH
NEWSLETTER
SUGGEST A STORY
PAJHWOK MOBILE APP