Begging in a fast growing city. Situations and impacts in Bahir Dar

Dessalegn Mekuriaw

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Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Sociology - Political Sociology, Majorities, Minorities, grade: Very Good, Addi...

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Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Sociology - Political Sociology, Majorities, Minorities, grade: Very Good, Addis Ababa University (College of scoial sciences), course: Sociology, language: English, abstract: This study was conducted in the city of Bahir Dar to investigate trends, situations, impacts and measures of begging. It employed mixed research methods, and cross-sectional and approximating longitudinal design with cross-sectional designs, and an integrated vulnerability model which focuses on cross-cutting combination of socially produced vulnerability and natural hazards leading to peoples' vulnerability which in turn exposes them to begging. It involved 98 participants drawn from beggars; officers from governmental, non-governmental and community based organizations; leaders of religious organizations; the public; tourists and a tour guide by employing census, convenience and purposive techniques of sampling. While qualitative data collected through in-depth and key informant interviews, personal observation and survey data having qualitative nature were analyzed through content and thematic analysis, quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with SPSS for windows version 20. The findings revealed that Bahir Dar city shows an ever increasing trend of beggars largely fueled by rural migrants. Sizable portions of beggars are physically strong; actively participate in different income generating activities in addition to begging; hate their begging and have strong desire to withdraw from it. However, they live in degrading and discriminatory type of social life; one of the unhealthiest life styles and poor access to basic services the urban life demands. By obstructing traffic and tourist flows, and participating in deviant and criminal acts, beggars in the city presented pressing socio-economic and health impacts on themselves, residents, city's security and tourism development. Dealing with the issue of begging in the city, however, was found at a nascent stage with the involvement of only one Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) and continual shift of responsible government bodies; poor coordination among many and lack of it with some of the concerned organizations. Currently, one of the most responsible government bodies in the region, BoLSA, has only 23.57% coverage to 140 districts. Therefore, due concern should be given by all governmental, non-governmental, religious and development organizations to act independently and jointly to deal with the impacts of begging by creating public consciousness, mobilizing the public and conducting multidisciplinary research aimed to deal with the subject.