Wrong approach to beggars

The Luohu district in Shenzhen in Guangdong province recently set up a rating system to assess the effectiveness of urban management partly based on the number of beggars on the street. Tolerance for the existence of beggars testifies to a city's civilization and the local authorities should rethink their move, says an article in Guangming Daily. Excerpts:

Assessing the performance of urban management officers by counting the number of beggars on the streets, means the urban management officers will try to remove beggars from the streets in order to earn a better assessment.

What the local authorities have failed to realize is this will only complicate the problem.

A regulation issued by the State Council in 2003 stipulates that when members of the public security departments or other administrative bodies find beggars they should persuade them to go to local aid stations and offer them help.

Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, launched a campaign a few years ago, which was aimed at helping the genuinely needy and cracking down on professional beggars and those who make money by organizing gangs of children and elderly to beg on the streets.

However, many local authorities still resort to the easy option of simply driving beggars away. As a modern metropolis, Shenzhen should demonstrate its inclusiveness and take various approaches to tackle the problem, such as helping the genuinely needy secure employment and medical aid.

(China Daily 07/10/2012 page9)