Some visually impaired people have accused the government of rushing into banning street begging without providing solutions for their survival.
One of the beggars in Blantyre, Raymond Tembo, said the ban undermines their right to life and other basic human rights.
“The government could have empowered us economically before effecting the ban. It is painful even for us to beg in the streets, but we don’t have alternative means of survival. There is a weaving factory in Bangwe yes, but how many people can it accommodate? I myself have been applying there since 2012 to no avail,” he said.
Another street beggar, Alex Nkhoma said he and his 10-year-old daughter were recently arrested for begging.
He said the police cheated them that they were taking them to Chisomo Children’s Club for an unspecified function.
“Instead of Chisomo, we were taken to Blantyre Police Station. I stayed all day without food and the place is not good for blind people like me. There are no sanitation services and I could easily have contracted diseases,” he said.
But Ministry of Gender, Disability, Children and Social Welfare has said it is implementing several programmes aimed at making persons with disabilities self-sufficient and they include Social Cash Transfer and Public Works Programmes.
The ministry’s spokesperson, Lucy Bandazi, said they also provide people with disabilities community based vocational trainings in tailoring, knitting, carpentry, and agriculture through Malawi Council for the Handicapped and Mulanje School for the Blind.
“It is sad that most of the persons with disabilities in the streets are graduates or beneficiaries of such programmes,” she said.
Bandazi further said the ministry is aware that the atmosphere in most of police cells is not conducive for people with disabilities and the ministry is working with other ministries and government departments to improve them.
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