Begging on Ghana’s streets - A case of nuisance or frank impoverishment?

Begging on the streets of Ghana is a phenomenon that cannot be ignored. Whether you’re a benefactor of beggars, a road user, or an observer, you cannot help but notice the gradual but steady increase in the numbers and intensity of begging on the streets that is beginning to look like a new career, a sensational one at that.

Ghana is a deeply religious country, with nearly all of her citizens practicing one of the three major religions. Knowing fully well that all religious groups stress on kindness, assistance to the poor and destitute and on charity, one can almost palpably see the exploitation of this religious obligation in the form of beggars singing hymns and asking for alms in the name of Jesus Christ or Allah.

During Ramadan, a period of sober praying, fasting and charity or Zakat for our Muslim brothers and sisters, the concentration of beggars in predominantly Muslim communities shoots up significantly.

Like street children and hawkers, the safety of these beggars, usually physically challenged and thus unable to move briskly and avert vehicular accidents is a matter of grave concern.

As a society we ought to be doing more to assist persons with disability to maximise their strengths and be economically independent. Having persons with disability resorting to begging as their only source of livelihood begs the question of the essence of the Disability Act, the Department of Social Welfare and other social intervention programmes we have put in place. I am aware there are some allocation of funds through the various District Assemblies for the upkeep of persons with disability in need, but it appears the limited money made available is sucked up by Disability Associations and rarely reaches the end point beneficiary. It is my belief that we can do better.

Attempts to help

About a decade ago the Department of Social Welfare through funding from the Bank of Ghana initiated a project to assist beggars with reasonable income earning activities in a bid to keep them off the street. It was a fantasy come true as beggars through a criteria I am unaware of were given deep freezers, ice chests, hair dryers and many other assorted equipment, ostensibly to “save them”. It was however a nine -day wonder as it was reported these beggars simply sent the things home and returned to the streets to resume their “day jobs” of begging. I’m not sure if a feasibility study was done before the project and whether an impact assessment of that project was done after it failed spectacularly. If these assessments were done, it will be a guiding factor for future efforts.

Foreign beggars

Another dimension to the begging factor is the influx of foreign beggars on the streets of Ghana. Young boys and girls from Niger who have a more aggressive and sometimes infuriating begging philosophy have become ubiquitous on the streets of the cities and in social places such as malls. There was one instance where one of these girls held on to a lady’s arm so tightly in begging for alms that the lady sustained fingernail scratches as she tried to break free. She was mortified, I stood by perplexed, as her parents sat under a tree monitoring their children’s “industriousness”. One wonders whether our immigration authorities are aware of this, and what is being done about it. Whether they are refugees, visitors of passion, nomads who are passing through or unavoidable side effects of the world acclaimed Ghanaian Hospitality, we need to know.

Begging is illegal

The NLCD 392- Beggars and Destitute Act (NLC 30) Section 2 bans public begging in Ghana, making it a crime punishable by imprisonment or a fine. I’m not sure how practicable the decree is, since the moral and public duty consideration may amount to, even after the imprisonment, referring the “culprits” to the Social Welfare Department for the necessary intervention; a department, that as it stands, has no answers in the form of logistics, funding or the capacity to engage in any far reaching project in this area. The fact that some criminals now pose as beggars to attack and defraud unsuspecting members of the public makes this problem, an even more daunting one and gives some credence to the decree.

The question as to whether those begging on the streets are indeed the poorest of the poor, and whether begging is indeed their last resort and if begging in itself is justifiable as a job is a debate that I’m sure will not end anytime soon. However, the Government through the Ministry for Women, Gender and Social Protection and acting through the Social Welfare Department and bodies such as Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) will need to re-launch the discussion on the best way forward in handling the “menace” of begging on our streets and even consider how the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme could accommodate some of these people.

NGO’s who are into public services and companies that are seeking to make as their Corporate Social Responsibility some of these projects will have to work with the Social Welfare Department based on data available in order to coordinate these efforts and ensure sustainable outcomes rather than the disjointed and checkered approach that NGOs and private organisations have thus far undertaken.

The writer is Founder and President of the Health Support Foundation. Writer’s E-mail: efogawu@yahoo.com
Tel: 0204112487