Abstract:
Begging o
n the streets
,
in the
urban centers is one of the age
-
long activities and perhaps occupations of the highly vulnerable,
poverty
-
ridden individuals in the society
. This is
particularly
not
limited to
the developing countries
alone
. As revealed in the studies
of different scholars, begging is not peculiar to developing countries;
it is a universal phenomenon (Ado, 1997) and a global urban
problem.
While a considerable number
of cities were identified in
the US and Mexico as having a significant level of begging activity
(Smith, 2005), cities in China, especially Shanghai, have been
described as homes of different categories of beggars (including the
poor, the disabled, the ho
meless and professional beggars), which
are described as “liumin” (floating people) or “youmin”
(wandering
people)
