Source: newsthemegh.com
Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Lariba Zuweira Abudu, has said government has done a lot to curb the menace of child beggars on the streets in the country.
According to the Gender Minister, child beggars would desist from going to the streets to beg if people, adults, do not give them money when they go begging.
Speaking at a press conference held in Accra, Sunday, 5 June 2023, the Gender Minister explained: “We have done a lot, we did some sweeps, we have gone out there with media to send them out.”
She revealed that her Ministry has engaged the embassies of the countries most of the child beggars are coming from and some of them have since been repatriated.
“They [child beggars] come from our neighboring nations, and we have contacted the embassies of some of the nations we believe they are from, including Burkina Faso and Niger. We have even repatriated roughly 400 of them. They’ll seek for a another route to return, the Minister said.
The Ghanaian culture of “giving” to beggars was another explanation offered by the gender minister for the existence of juvenile beggars on the streets.
“I frequently ask, ‘Why should we provide money to a child of school age? It’s business as usual, and as a nation, we ought to take a look at it.
“Why do you give the child money if he is begging at age six? She stated, “If you don’t give today, I won’t give tomorrow, and someone doesn’t give next week, they’ll return to school.
We should consider it as a country that you don’t give a kid money, she continued. “So it is the culture, our culture of the way we give to these minors that is the reason they are on the streets.”