“Begging is a negative social phenomenon and we should all cooperate to reduce and eliminate this from our society,” said Hamood Al Mandhari from the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) while cautioning people about beggars and urging them to help the ministry and other government agencies to help tackle the issue.

Last year, 330 beggars were arrested in 1,222 operations conducted by the anti-beggar team from the MoSD in Muscat, Dhofar, North and South Al Batinah and Buraimi Governorates. This year, 16 people have already been arrested in the Wilayat of Seeb alone. 

“We are still at the beginning of the Holy Month; and 16 non-Omanis, 14 men and two women have been arrested from Seeb alone,” said Al Mandhari.

In April this year, 263 beggars were held, out of which 160 were male and 103 were female. Out of the total, 64 Omani beggars were caught, of which 44 were male and 20 were female, and 199 non-Omanis were caught, of which 116 were male and 83 were female.

Many people in Oman have complained of the menace caused by beggars. “I was sitting in Costa Coffee with my friends once when a burqa clad woman approached me asking for money. Out of sympathy, I ended up giving her OMR1,” said Dawood Al Adhoubi, who has been approached multiple times in different cafes by female beggars. “When I had gone for a walk yesterday in Ghubra, a GMC 4X4 with a man, his wife, and child in it stopped near me and asked for cash. He said he was coming from Salalah and had lost his wallet. When I told him to contact the ROP for help, he fled,” said a Ghubra resident.

These beggars usually work in groups. “It is evident from the members of the team fighting begging that some of the arrests made are of people belonging to groups distributed according to the places and they are mostly connected through family relationships,” said Al Mandhari. “But organised groups are very few.”

The beggars usually target places where a crowd tends to gather. “They go to mosques, public markets, commercial complexes, residential neighbourhoods and gas stations.”

The beggars try to garner the publics’ sympathy in a number of ways during the Holy Month. Al Mandhari further noted, “The beggar asks for money directly from the public by showing his difficult situation, disabilities or children as an important motivation to attract public’s compassion to give money (charity).”

“An old Bangladeshi man in Al Khuwair with a walking stick claimed his leg is bad and asked for OMR2 straight up,” said Al Khuwair resident Anees Mohammed, describing the man to be dressed in white who can be usually found near the Noor shopping centre.

“Begging affects psychological, social and economic security in the lives of communities and individuals. We should all cooperate to reduce and eliminate this phenomenon as the efforts of the MoSD and other government agencies alone are not enough and therefore it requires the participation of all segments of society to reduce begging,” said Al Mandhari, calling on people to help fight the begging phenomenon in Oman.

Source: Timesofoman