Children Begging on the Streets

Nino Kimadze 

“When people see a child, they feel more empathy and help us”, -this is a statement of a woman who begs in the subway passage. According to her, she used to live in an apartment in Saburtalo district, because of the difficult economic situation, she sold the apartment and now she is renting a flat. She is a single mother, who no longer receives a social allowance. She decided to go out on streets with her child for begging.

 

The women begs with her child and as she says, the only reason why she brings her child to the street is that she has no one at home to take care of him. However, seeing a child has a positive impact on people and they receive more help.

“My child is a straight-A student of a N2 public school. He has a vacation now and as we live alone, I cannot leave him to anyone so I bring him with me on streets,” –says the single mother.

Humanrights.ge had a conversation with a psychologist Rezo Jorbenadze about the children who are begging on the streets. According to him, a fact when a parent brings a child to the street for begging is related to the Learning Theory (a perspective stating that a person is learning, getting knowledge in a social context through observation and based on its own experience). According to him, when a parent brings a child to the street for begging, the child automatically gets used to the environment and learns this kind of behavior. 

“Children quickly get used to living and begging on streets and after this it is difficult for them to integrate in a normal society,”_ said Rezo Jorbenadze. 

According to the psychologist, there are three types of parents who force their children to beg on streets.

“There are people who hire children, make them to drink medication and force them to beg because children cause more empathy. In other cases, mothers bring their children, because they want to control and look after them. There are cases when it does not matter for parents what their children will do, they have distributed perimeter for begging,” _ said Jorbenadze.

 

Human rights’ defenders think that it is violation of children’s rights when parents take them to streets. Various organizations, including UNICEF, which was conducting a monitoring on children from August 2012 to May 2015, are actively involved in discovering this kind of facts and providing help for children. 

Humanrights.ge had a conversation with a manager of Communication Program of UNICEF, Maia Kurtsikidze. According to her, with the support of UNICEF and EU, there had been a program since 2013, which provided help for children who live and work on streets. This program aimed to create a state mechanism, which did not exist before. According to Kurtsikidze, there are mobile groups for helping and protecting children’s rights. They systematically monitor children who live and work on streets. 

“There are three mobile groups, which function in Tbilisi. Several persons staff these groups: social workers, psychologists and peer educators who are young and have an experience of living on streets. They are central figures who are in contact with these children,”_ said Maia Kurtsikidze. 

According to the manager of the Communication Program, the groups work in Tbilisi and Kutaisi. According to her, there are other services too. Daily centers where children go and receive various services, also participate in different types of educational programs. There is a night shelter as well, where children spend nights.

 

“Mobile groups and services are temporary. The main objective is to return these children to families. If this is impossible, then they occur under the care of the Government. To provide this, there exist a small family houses and foster care,”_ said Maia Kurtsikidze.

Kurtsikidze points out, that the assistance program ended in May 2015 and after this the Government took responsibility of financing. The Governmental programs have been created and assistance for these children continues. More than 400 children received help in Kutaisi and more than 100 children are placed in centers of Tbilisi. 

Despite the fact that year 2014 was announced as a year of children’s rights protection, a number of children who are begging on streets has become more noticeable.