Odisha has 5,950 beggars and
efforts are on to impart vocational training in order to make them self-sufficient, a minister said on Saturday.
Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disability (SSEPD) Minister Ashok Chandra Panda said this while replying to a question in the Assembly.
Cuttack district tops the list with 1,060 beggars, it is followed by 545 in Ganjam, 423 in Sundargarh, 366 in Puri and 197 in Khurda district, the minister said.
Angul and Khurda districts witnessed a sharp increase in the number with 205 and 197 beggars, respectively, as against 97 and 53 last year.
The number of beggars in Kalahandi district has dropped to 74 from 214 last year. Deogarh district has only 3 beggars, the lowest in the state.
In order to tackle the menace, the minister said the state government has decided that two vocational training centres will be opened in Puri and Bhubaneswar for the beggars.
In 2018, the SSEPD Department had launched a special drive to make the state beggar-free, the minister said.
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