ISLAMABAD-Representatives of civil society on Sunday urged the concerned authorities to rehabilitate women beggars seen lined up in every market of the twin cities.
They were of the view that it was responsibility of the government to take necessary rehabilitative steps in this regard.
Musarrat Naz, from Awaz NGO, said that the beggars were physically-challenged people or some stuck up in mafia and were left with no other choice but to go for begging.
He said that shelters homes with legal protection should be given to women beggars and there must be work done on their entrepreneur skills. Beggary is a social evil which needs urgent measures to be tackled, he said.
Owais, a social worker, said that the curse of beggary had stuck in our society like a termite, because of unemployment, poverty and illiteracy.
He said that providing basic facilities to poor like free education and health and housing facilities were necessary to eliminate this evil. He suggested that for healthy environment in the society, there was a need of stringent laws to combat the beggary problem.
As a citizen, we should discourage beggars and should encourage them to do some work and in this we can help them, he added.
When contacted, a Federal Ombudsman official Khalid Sayal said that they had prepared a report in which they have recommended necessary steps for rehabilitation of women beggars including shelters and security for them.
They are some more steps in pipeline for their betterment.
The present government is trying its best to assist the down trodden segments of the society, he said.