There are 148 beggars in Fiji according to the Poverty Monitoring Unit.
The unit has revealed that 11 of the 148 are child beggars, 33 have mental illnesses and 59 are Department of Social Welfare recipients.
It has been revealed that beggars have adapted to their operation method and no longer sit around but move from place to place.
They stand up and disappear with the public when they see government vehicles.
It has also been confirmed that beggars in the Western Division have moved to hotel complexes and business houses asking for money.
The Ministry says that after their taskforce profiled the beggars they have found out that no beggar is homeless.
The Poverty Monitoring Unit also revealed that there has been a common complaint of children asking shoppers for loose change.
The unit has highlighted that once a child beggar is seen on the street their taskforce take the time to talk to them and they are taken to their homes, where Ministry workers talk with the family.
Concerns were also raised on whether or not the Ministry had the power to charge parents whose children are seen begging outside shopping mall car-parks.
The ministry has powers to charge the parents, however they first try to talk with parents to help them provide for their children as part of Operation Loloma, an initiative by the Poverty Monitoring Unit, under the Ministry of Children and Poverty Alleviation.
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