The Federation of NGOs, which was constituted to achieve ‘Beggar Free Society’, held a conference on June 23 and discuss measures to make Hyderabad a Beggar Free city.
An NGO came up with a staggering figure of about 25000 beggars in Hyderabad and all of them earning as much as 456 Crore per year. The figures reveal that beggars earn about 500 Rupees per day and children earn more than adults.
At the seminar held by the GHMC and attended by the officials of various departments and representatives of several NGOs, it was revealed that more than 2,5000 beggars on the city roads were making as much as Rs 456 crore rupees per annum.
Earlier a survey by a local NGO had put the amount at only Rs 42 crore.
Jayaprakash Bharat, who heads one of the NGOs working on the problem of begging on the city roads told the seminar that 90 to 95 per cent beggars are not at all willing to accept rehabilitation in old age homes, schools, and ashrams/orphanages. Majority of these beggars had come from other States, as far as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and made the city roads their homes earning money through begging, he said.
“only 5 per cent are real and needy people. All others are fake and doing it for money”, he said.“In this month of Ramzan when most Muslims give zakat, they should give the alms to people who need them. They should not give it to undeserving people,