Many motorists will be happy that authorities have started a campaign to stop children from begging in the crowded streets of Metro Manila this Christmas season. Apart from the fact that children put themselves at risk of molestation and being injured by vehicles, there are beggars who vandalize the cars of motorists who refuse to give alms. A number of children openly sniff rugby for the cheapest high, which kills hunger pangs.
Aware that they are exempted from criminal prosecution, some children commit not just misdemeanors but even heavier offenses such as snatching cell phones and necklaces of jeepney passengers. One video showed young boys jumping onto a jeepney and grabbing the moneybox of the poor driver. When caught, one of the thieves showed violent defiance rather than remorse.
Once the beggars are “rescued” by police, however, what happens to them? They are turned over to social welfare officers and then returned to their parents or guardians. The kids are back in the streets in no time. Juvenile welfare facilities are acutely inadequate.
Street children and other beggars are usually rounded up when there are major international gatherings in Manila. Their continued proliferation indicates a weakness in the free education program of the government as well as cash assistance programs, which are meant precisely to benefit the impoverished. There are dirt-poor families that cannot afford the barebones requirements of giving a child formal education even when tuition is free.
Poverty creates street dwellers, and the child beggars will keep returning. The government can develop programs to provide “rescued” children even informal education, providing them the rudiments of the so-called three Rs. If the children achieve functional literacy at the right age, they might yet be encouraged to pursue formal education at the higher levels. Their rescue can then be life-altering, for the long-term rather than seasonal.