BY: SARA ANUAR

In big cities, major towns and urban areas beggars, the homeless and vagrants are to be found in ever increasing numbers and the authorities must not be silent neither should they turn a blind eye to these developments.

With the increase in the cost of living, the hardcore poor, those in the B40 and M40 groups are being forced to the fringes of living in poverty as they cannot generate an income and aid and assistance to these people are unavailable.

Whose responsibility is it when a person has to beg, be a vagrant or has no home to go to but to sleep on the streets, rain or shine, and be not only at the mercy of the elements but having to rely on the charity and generosity of the general public?

This issue has often sparked outrage and an outcry by the public as it is so evident that the relevant government ministries, departments and agencies are not prioritising these people and instead just see them as a public nuisance.

The idea of feeding them, clothing them and housing them is just treating the symptoms of this human condition and not going to the root of the problem to eliminate once and for all this form of abject poverty.

The government needs to get on the job before the situation gets out of control and unmanageable and it is important to seriously consider the plight of these people which gives an impression to people that it is not prosperity but poverty that abounds in this country.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE

** The views expressed on this opinion is of the writer and not the publisher