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JAKARTA: Residents in one Indonesian city who give in to the tug of
guilt could face three months in jail under a law criminalizing
giving money to beggars and street children, the city’s mayor said
Friday.
The new regulation approved last month by the
legislative council in Makassar, South Sulawesi, is aimed at
reducing the city’s swelling population of beggars, Mayor Ilham
Arif Sirajuddin told Agence France-Presse.
“Under the law, people who give money to
beggars will be jailed up to three months or have to pay a maximum
fine of 1.5 million rupiah [$163],” he said.
“This is an important decision to clear
beggars from the streets,” Sirajuddin said, adding that beggars
and street children face maximum sentences of three years in jail or
fines up to five million rupiah.
The crackdown has been matched by a program to
train beggars for work, he said.
The population of beggars and street children in
Makassar jumped from 870 in 2006 to 2,600 this year, he said.
-- AFP
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