Taliban’s program for beggars in Afghan Capital rounds up thousands

KABUL (Khaama Press): Following an order from the Taliban supreme leader, over 8,000 beggars have been rounded up from the streets of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, Taliban authorities said.
The Taliban government’s Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs stated that 8,444 beggars, including 5,779 women, had been rounded up from various areas around Kabul.
Only 1,750 of these women have been identified as “deserving,” according to the statement, and the remaining women are “professional” beggars.
The Taliban Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who also chairs the “Beggar Collection Committee”, stated that out of the 718 men who were collected as beggars, 236 were found to be “deserving” and the remaining 482 were determined to be professional beggars.
There are more than 1947 children among the beggars collected, 1079 of whom are identified as deserving and 41 of them are orphans, according to information provided by the Taliban government.
According to the announcement, orphaned beggar children have been transferred to the educational facilities under the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs after undergoing biometric registration.
The orphaned children are said to receive education in these facilities in addition to sustenance and shelter.
The Taliban government says that hundreds of individuals have already benefited from the cash assistance program that the Afghan Red Crescent Society has begun to provide to deserving beggars. However, the fate of the “professional” beggars remains uncertain.
Previously, the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, ordered the Deputy Prime Minister of the Taliban to work with the relevant authorities to begin the process of rounding up panhandlers from Kabul city and addressing and resolving their problems.