Destitution, Street Begging National Embarrassment – Minister | Tellwell Newspaper
From Godwin Agia, Jalingo
Minister Sadiyya Umar FarouqThe rapid increase of destitution and street begging in Nigeria has become a national embarrassment, so says the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq.
She said in Jalingo, Taraba State, Thursday, 11th August, that the menace have constituted a matter for grave concern to government.
She was speaking at the Mapout project to mitigate destitution and street begging in Nigeria.
“There is an unprecedented increase in the number of beggars and the destitute in urban areas,” she disclosed, saying, “Several scholars have suggested that begging and destitution are associated with the Low and medium income Countries (LMICs), faulty socioeconomic, weak health systems historical background.”
The minister explained further: “This in turn is characterized by low income earnings, high unemployment rates, explosion in cost of living, high rates of population growth, inappropriate public policies, poor health status, continued rural to urban migration and massive citizen’s displacements.”
She maintained: “In spite of the fact that street begging constitutes a nuisance to the health, physical and social environment of cities, the continuing reliance on the activity as a means of livelihood amounts to a waste of human resources and impacts negatively on the health of the beggars.”
Represented by the Ministry’s Director of Social Development, Taiwo Ademola, the Minister said the project was part of the ministry’s efforts at tackling the daily increase of destitution and street begging in the country.
She said the exercise was targeted at 50 Destitute, Children, and Vulnerable who will be drawn from the 16 Local Government Areas of the state.
Sadiya explained that the exercise was expected to critically provide baseline scientific information required for the improvement of the health condition of the target group, as well as the development of a vocational training intervention programme for beggars with a view of contributing to the economic growth in the society.
Earlier, the Taraba State Commissioner for Social Development, Mrs Hauwa Andeyasto, said that the state government, years ago, took steps to address the menace through several youth and women training and empowerment schemes that had in no small measure helped to take several youth and children off the streets.
The Commissioner however expressed worry that the problem has remained a major concern as some people were making it a career with increasing spectrum of techniques deployed often to even defraud unsuspecting members of the public.
