From Alms to Income:
Begging as an overlooked issue of disability and
poverty
Nora Ellen Groce
Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development Centre
University College London
nora.groce@ucl.ac.uk
December 12, 2014
Findings from the Disabled Beggars Project, Ethiopia. ILO. Funding from Irish AID
Co-Authors: Babara Murry, Marie Loeb, Carlo Tramontano, Jean Francois Trani, Assefa Mekonen
Setting the Scene:
Changing Concepts of Disability
Moral definition:
focus on individuals sin, wrong-doing/
response defined by community
Medical definition:
focus on individual
impairment and mitigation of
disability/ response defined by
health care professioansl
Social definition:
focus on social context and
response on redefining social
norms/ legal protections/
human rights
2
Problems Disabled Persons face
Moral definition:
• Shame, Guilt
Medical definition:
• Impairment, being
seen as ‘abnormal’
Social definition:
• Societal Barriers
Responses in terms of Livelihoods
Charity definition: locus of control is
the family/ community
• Alms, begging, charity
Medical definition: Locus of
contron is health care/ social
service professionals
• Sheltered workshops
Social definition: Locus of
control is individual/ backed
by human rights laws
• Supported
employment,
• Open employment,
Vision of the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities
– Work and Employment
• Article 27:
− States Parties recognize the right of persons with
disabilities, to work on an equal basis with others
• Right to opportunity to gain a living by work freely chosen or
accepted in a labour market and work environment that is open,
inclusive and accessible
UN CRPD Vision
Adequate Standard of Living and Social Protection
• Article 28:
– Adequate standard of living for persons with disabilities and families
• including adequate food, clothing and housing
• continuous improvement of living conditions
– Social protection:
• equal access by persons with disabilities to clean water services,
• access to appropriate and affordable services, devices and other
assistance for disability-related needs;
• access by persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls with
disabilities and older persons with disabilities, to social protection
programmes and poverty reduction programmes;
• For those living in poverty, assistance with disability-related expenses,
including adequate training, counselling, financial assistance and respite
care;
• Access to public housing programmes;
• Equal access to retirement benefits and programmes.
In this study, we set out to answer
4 questions:
•
What factors are involved in the
decision that some people with
disabilities make to turn to begging?
•
What is daily life like for those people
with disabilities who beg?
•
What does the future look like for those
people with disabilities who beg?
•
Are there key points where
interventions can be made to either
keep people with disabilities from
begging or to get them viable
alternatives to begging if that is their
current source of income.
Study Design
•
Literature Review –
•
Mixed Methods in Addis Ababa
– Interviews - 28 in-depth interviews
– Focus Groups – 4 focus groups
– Survey 100 street beggars
• Developed/piloted survey
• 11 fieldworkers under direction of Assefa Mekonen
• Sought balance in gender/ type of disability
– Worked with ILO Office, Addis Ababa; ILO Geneva
Here is what we found:
Key Finding
A more heterogeneous group than
anticipated which therefore offers more
points for intervention
Literature Review: A Striking Lack of
Evidence
Comprehensive literature review of begging in general;
disability and begging specifically; disability and begging at
national and local levels:
> Allusions to begging throughout history – BUT almost no evidence
> Often questions about rights/needs of beggars, however:
> Even in this literature, the need and right to beg for persons
with disability was RARELY questioned.
In Amharic a saying is: Why should you beg? You
have arms don’t you? You have legs?
> Virtually no exploration of what caused certain people with
disabilities to beg, while people with comparable disabilities from much
the same background, earned their livings in other ways
> Almost no studies actually interviewed people with disabilities who beg
> Virtually no quantitative studies that compared disabled to
non-disabled beggars
> Virtually no studies that qualitatively or quantitatively (or using
mixed methods) examined the lives of people with disabilities who
worked as beggars either in developed or developing countries.
(1) Groce N, Loeb M, Murray B. 2014. Disabled Beggars; A Literature Review. Geneva:
International Labour Organization
http://www.ilo.org/employment/Informationresources/WCMS_310228/lang-en/index.htm
Begging and Disability
• Historical Overview
– An Urban Issue
‘The city lifts its hand like a cripple, O
my lord Shu-Sin’
(Sumerican Clay Tablet, 2400 BC)
– Expected Role
• Cycle of Poverty
• Lack of social support
networks
• Internalized social stigma
• Lack of education/skills
• Lack of employment
• Lack of social protection
Demographics
• Male verse female
• Origins – urban/rural – 96% rural
• 80% had begged for five years or
more
– 19% had done so for over 20 years
– 5% had begged between one and
two years
– only 2% were new to the streets,
having begged for under a 1 year.
• Types of disabilities
–
–
–
–
–
Physical
Blind
Mental health
What is not seen on streets – Deaf/intellectually
disabled
Age distribution
Key Findings: A more heterogeneous group than anticipated
which therefore offers more points for intervention
• Come to Addis
1. Pushed from home because of
disability
2. Came for medical cure (Western
and religious healing)
• Stayed in Addis because
1. No home to return to
2. Not ‘cured’ so did not want to
return to be a ‘burden’
3.Came for education at special
schools
3. Flunked/dropped out of special
school/ cannot return home
4.Came as a non-disabled
individual/ subsequently disabled
4. Little/no understanding about
what it means to live with a
disability
Education
Range of
educational
achievements
Level of education
Gender
Male
Female
No formal schooling,
-cannot read/write
31.,1%
66.,7%
No formal school,
but can read/write
26.,2%
15.,4%
Completed or at least
some primary school
19.,7%
12.,8%
Completed or at least some
secondary school
11.,5%
5,.1%
Other (religious, etc.)
11.,5%
0%
Total
• .
100.,0%
100.,0%
Current job skills/employment history
One assumption raised repeatedly in the literature is that
persons with disabilities turned to begging because they
have little or no prior job training or work experience.
Employment before they became beggar
•
–
Job Training/ Apprenticeships : 68% had no training or
apprenticeship history
–
Men surveyed were more likely than women to have
received training (36.1% verses 25.6%),
•
–
A third (32%) did have some prior training
or apprentice experience to prepare them
for the workforce.
•
•
Among those who received a training,
– sewing-related (14 respondents,
43.8%)
– business skills (7 respondents, 21.89%)
– trades (i.e.: electrician, welder,
carpenter) -5 respondents, (15.6%), .
– One respondent (3%) reported having
trained as a secretary,
Of those surveyed, 59% reported no previous
employment history outside the home /had lived
on ‘family support.’
A number of those interviewed reported that they
had lived with parents until some incident – usually
the death of one or both parents – left them with
no choice but to leave home.
41% of those surveyed interviewed had some work
experience outside home before turning to the
streets.
–
–
–
–
12% agriculture,
8% military prior to becoming disabled.
6% business or selling.
3% manual labour.
•
Men interviewed were more likely than women to
have had previous work history (88 % compared to
56%)
•
Lack of formal employment/ employment outside
home OBSCURES many peoples work history
Amounts collected on an average/ unusually good/unusually bad day
Dispels assumption that disabled beggars do well economically.
•
Even on an exceptionally good day, over one third of respondents (38%) collected less than the
global poverty line of 21.25 Ethiopian Birr; almost half (47%) collected between 20 and 30 birr (at
or slightly above the poverty line), while 15% collected 30 birr or more.
Amount
Average day Unusually good day
0-5 birr
5-10 birr
10-15 birr
15-20 birr
20-30 birr
30-40 birr
Over 40 birr
Do not know
3.0%
16.0%
31.0%
22.0%
19.0%
4.0%
0%
5.0%
0%
0%
18%
20%
47%
10%
5%
0%
Total
100.0%
100%
•
Unusually bad day
78%
13%
6%
1%
1%
1%
0%
0%
100%
So 72% early less than 20 birr (US $1.18 per day); 40 Birr = US $ 2.35; Global poverty $1.25 per diem
Level of Poverty/ Earnings
Profound level of Poverty
• Range of earnings – consistently
low • Housing – crowding/ nature of
materials/ 7% slept on streets
• Access to water/sanitation: (50%
-facilities more than 5 minutes
away; 19% no facilities near
home)
• Material goods – (bed, blanket,
change of clothing, cooking pot,
water jar) – (39% no bed; 11% no
blanket)
• Food
Family – support networks
•
•
•
49% married; 16% unmarried but co-habiting
33% single, divored or separated
71% had children – 19% 1 child; 41% had 2 or more; 11% had 4 or more. But only 42% said
their children live with them
• Living arrangements
–
–
–
–
–
4% lived with parents
4% with siblings
11.8% with other relatives
39% with friends or roommates
10% lived alone
Daily Lives
• Daily routine
• Views on Begging
• Interactions with other
beggars/ able-bodied and
disabled
• Individual attributes – weak
social ties
Despite this – show considerable initiative:
•
20% report paying for education/skills building
to enable them to get a better job
•
Equibus and Burial Societies
•
Take on additional work where possible
*
– lottery tickets/watching cars & shops
•
Generate money wherever possible
– Donated food resold
– Rental of beds
•
Hopes for the future –
– 87% did not see themselves as begging in
future
Limited Knowledge of rights/
Interaction with NGOs and DPOs
• Limited knowledge of
disability rights
• Limited interaction or
support from
– NGOs
– DPOs
Conclusions
•
A group at grave risk, currently not being reached by
either mainstream development or disability-focused
groups
•
NGO/DPO efforts have been focused on keeping people
with disabilities OFF the Streets – but little has been
done to reach those now on the streets
•
Those interviewed/surveyed consistently showed a great
deal of initiative - and this may bode well for future
efforts to engage them and provide alternative sources
of making a living – HOWEVER the majority had been on
the streets for 5 years or longer, so this may not be an
easy task.
•
Low level of awareness among those
interviewed/surveyed of CPRD/ Disability Rights;
alternative options & etc.
Points for intervention to keep disabled people
from winding up on streets
Pushed from home because of
disability
Came for medical cure (Western and
religious healing)
Came for education at special schools
Came as a non-disabled individual/
subsequently disabled
•
Majority from rural areas – better education/
family education/ support to keep many from
leaving home/ going to cities
•
Work with medical facilities in rural areas to
improve coordination/ delivery of services in
rural areas/ support to manage expectations
from urban services
•
Work with schools to ensure that drop outs are
given apprenticeships/ moved into employment
•
Work with hospitals/rehabilitation services/ link
these to disability/DPOs; training for
employment long before individual is released
from hospital
Points for intervention once disabled
people wind up on streets
•
Improved apprenticeship/training/ education linked to jobs
•
Support services – support for individual/ building support networks
•
Access to micro-credit and support in setting up small businesses
•
Social protection systems – (viable ones)
•
Linking to major government/NGO development efforts
•
Improved accessibility in workplace and in transportation systems
•
Linking to DPOs/ and Disability-Focused NGOs for peer support/ information/support
on Disability Rights/ awareness raising & etc.
•
Attitudinal Change in wider community
For full discussion of material presented here: see the following publications
from the ILO Disabled Beggar Study:
Ethiopia.
•
Groce N., Murray B, Loeb M, Mekonnen A,Tramontano C, Trani JF. Mekonnen A. 2013.
Disabled Street Beggars In Ethiopia: Findings from the UCL/ ILO Study. Geneva:
International Labour Organization, United Nations.
http://www.addc.org.au/documents/resources/130613-disabled-beggars-in-addis-ababa-iloworking-paper_1433.pdf
•
Groce N, Murray B, Kealy A. 2014. Disabled Beggars in Addis Ababa: Current Situation and
Prospects for Change. Executive Summary. International Labour Organization.
http://ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/--ifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_302656.pdf
•
Groce N, Loeb M, Murray B. 2014. Disabled Beggars; A Literature Review. Geneva:
International Labour Organization
http://www.ilo.org/employment/Informationresources/WCMS_310228/lang--en/index.htm
–
All publications available free on the ILO www.ilo.org/disability and the Leonard Cheshire Disability and Inclusive Development
Centre www.lcdisability.org/idc websites