People with special needs and disabilities have been asked to stop begging on the streets of Borno State.

Abubakar Mohammed Kalwa Kalwa, chairman of the Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities in Maiduguri, said people looked down on beggars and made them feel worthless.

He said: “Begging is like training. Some people start begging in their childhood, sometmes for reasons beyond their control.”

But, he said, begging on the streets took away their dignity.

Some parents used their cripple children to beg for money. Some children were even given fake medical certificates to get money from passers-by, he said.

Kalwa, who is also disabled, said that if “Allah gives you a child who is crippled”, it should be the families who should take responsibility and look after the child.

He said if the family did not “join hands” to raise the child, he would be forced to beg in the streets. Such families were not taking responsibility.

He said even some of the parents who were educated and could read and write had allowed their children to beg on the streets.

Kalwa said such parents should be helping their children to achieve their dreams.

He said it was not easy for the government to feed all people with disabilities in Borno State because there were many of them.

Kalwa urged the government to help beggars to become entrepreneurs, which would take them off the streets and give them back their dignity.