Seeing an old beggar in Phu Nhuan District’s Tran Ke Xuong Street, Ngo Phuong turned around her motorbike and it appeared that she was going to give him money.

Beggars on the street of HCM City. The city has begun a plan to move all beggars from streets and other public places.

The hotline is a new strategy created by the municipal People’s Committee in order to decrease the number of homeless people begging in the streets.

HCM City has set a goal of removing all of the beggars from the city’s streets and public places by next year.

Nguyen Trung Tuan, director of the centre, said that after they received a call about a person begging in the streets, the centre would then dispatch officers there and bring the person back to the centre.

Tuan said that in one month’s time, the centre would contact their families and then take them home. However, if they did not have a home, the centre would classify them as a beggar, and then send them to the Centre for the Elderly or Teenage Education Centre.

The municipal Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Department reported that more than 6,500 beggars had been sent to the city’s social support centres.

However, Tuan said that most of the beggars were elderly people or children forced by their family members to beg for money.

Le Thanh Tam, director of the Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Department, said that the number of beggars in the city had decreased, but the problem still persisted. There have been many reported cases of beggars, after they’ve returned home, being sent back to the streets by their families to beg.

Nguyen Hoang Anh, an officer from the Social Support Centre, said that if an investigation proved that the individuals at the centres were being forced to beg then they would be cared for at the centre. The children that stay at the centre receive an education and vocational training.

Tam said that the department also started a campaign that asks people not to give money to beggars but inform the city’s social support centre when they see such things happening.

“I used to think that giving money to beggars was good,” said Phuong. However, after I learned about some of the reasons why people are forced to beg, I felt angry. I do not want to do that anymore because it allows individuals to take advantage of elderly people and children by forcing them to beg for money.”

Tam said that people should put their efforts in the right places rather than just giving money to people who are being exploited.

Tuan said that the HCM City centre would also have to co-operate with other localities because up to 95 per cent of the beggars in HCM City are from other provinces.

Mai Thi Hoa, head of the department’s Social Support Division, said that the local authorities should ask people not to directly give money to beggars, but to charity funds instead.

Hoa also said that local authorities needed to boost their inspections of temporary residence registrations in order to find out why the individuals at the centres are begging.

Nguyen Van Dung, head of HCM City Police’s Social Order Management Department, said that the police were currently investigating crime rings forcing and coercing others to beg for money.

Nguyen Van Trong said that he had sold lottery tickets in order to earn money. He also said that people should have self-respect and should not take advantage of others’ kindness.

Hotlines are available for people who want to provide information about beggars: 08.35533258, 08.37470195, 08.39306347, 08.38920732 or 08.38740297.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News