Beggars at traffic intersections

It is sometimes embarrassing when foreigners are approached with importunate demands for money by the beggars, specially young girls, men and women with baby in their laps. A British journalist on tour in our country with the English Cricket team, having gained a lot of experience in this regard, dispatched a series of reports on the plight of these poor people for publication in their newspapers. Frankly speaking, these beggars are not that poor as they seem, rather they have been living with their families in rented houses in Dhaka. Some of them own rickshaws, vans, etc. and regularly send money to their homes to defray family expenses. There are able-bodied young men and women who can very well perform any other jobs but prefer begging as means of their livelihood and the alarming aspect is the number of new faces is increasing continuously.

I would like to make an appeal to the ministry of social welfare to solve the problem by forcibly withdrawing these handicapped young girls, men, women with babies from the traffic intersections and rehabilitate them. If the problem is dealt with seriously, I believe these beggars can be rehabilitated and could be engaged in development activities.