Serving the helpless: a mission

That the new government led by PM Oli is determined to rescue the poor and the helpless from the street is encouraging. The decision, if implemented well, will witness a scenario in which no beggar or physically handicapped person or poor old person will be seen begging or seeking mercy of passer- by in streets of Kathmandu. As they are rescued from streets they should be looked after in a human way and their return to street should be discouraged. Efforts should also be made to discourage people to join street for begging as a way of living. All those rescued from the street should be given appropriate training for living as per their physical and mental state and capacity. Those who are physically and mentally unable to benefit from training should be looked after in a special way under the supervision of health experts. The scheme of rescuing street-dependent-people and rehabilitating them properly is a complete package with social, psychological, economic, cultural and political dimensions. Unless the issue is addressed taking all those factors into consideration, the problem will not be solved. Because the effort in this regard was not multi-dimensional in the past, the problem although addressed at times, continued to trouble the urban areas. Analyzing the factors that push people particularly children, the helpless, and the elderly to resort to street-begging is highly essential. Various socio-economic factors may be responsible for this. They should be addressed. The government may have taken the point as it decided to make people from dependence on roadside-begging. Low agricultural productivity in villages is also one reason that makes people of villages migrate to cities for earning a living. As they cannot get employed in cities they resort to street. This cycle should be corrected through promoting agricultural productivity schemes in villages. At the same time offering employment opportunities to people in urban areas should also be emphasized. All concerned should know that by simply not allowing people to beg in the street the problem will not be tackled. To solve the problem on a sustainable way and render streets beggar free, multi-dimensional approach should be adopted with a sense of dedication. Those in power should have political will to back it up. Since the latest decision has been taken with due thinking and wisdom, there is no point why it should not emerge as a successful experiment in urban development.