KUALA LUMPUR: Limited employment opportunities and the lucrative income from begging activities is among the reasons that prompted the visually impaired (OKU) to go to the streets to get public sympathy by becoming beggars.

Malaysian Association for the Blind (MAB) chief executive officer George Thomas said since the country was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to limited job opportunities, begging activities had increased.

"Despite the dialogue and the counselling given, once they have experienced the lucrative income and realise how easy it is to solicit public donations, they find it difficult to stop (from begging)," he told Bernama, adding that MAB and the Social Welfare Department (JKM) strongly discourage them from doing so.

A Bernama report on Wednesday revealed that there was no involvement of a syndicate in begging activities in the Klang Valley, but by individuals who opted to beg as a living for easy money.

George said investigation conducted by MAB, with the cooperation of the local authorities, found that most of those who made a living by begging would hire an escort, usually a foreign national to accompany them to carry out the activities by going to targeted location using e-hailing vehicles.

George, who has been involved in handling the visually impaired since 1986, said although various initiatives and skills training were given to them, their limited capability created a stigma for employers to hire them.

"With modern applications such as Seeing A.I (Artificial Intelligence) and Speech-To-Text that can be downloaded easily, these people can also work like normal individuals. We need to find alternatives to give them employment opportunities.

"I hope the government will provide employment in the public sector to at least one per cent of the disabled (population) to work in the public sector because currently, only 0.3 per cent of the group get employed in the public sector," he added.

Sharing this view is OKU Sentral president Senator Datuk Ras Adiba Radzi, who said the employment opportunity for the disabled is at an alarming level, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.

She shared her experience on the challenges she went through when she was unemployed for six years after being confirmed partially paralysed in 2002 following a road crash in 1996, although she had experience in journalism.

"It is indeed difficult currently for persons with disabilities (PwDs) to find to get a job. In fact, this has been a long-standing issue for the PwDs for years, but it has gotten serious since the pandemic.

"Although the government has assured for each ministry to have one per cent of PwDs employed at its agencies, so far, only four ministries have surpassed the rate.

"I have been to the ministries and met the ministers to inform the matter and given several suggestions to provide opportunities for the PwDs. This is something that we cannot take lightly as the PwDs can also help to generate the country's economy," she added.

She said the private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should also provide opportunities for the PwDs to be employed at their establishments as they also had the qualifications, skills and experience like normal people.

She said the private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) should also provide opportunities for the PwDs to be employed at their establishments as they also had the qualifications, skills and experience like normal people.

Ras Adiba, who represents the PwDs in the Senate, chided those who acted as blind persons to solicit alms by emulating the visually impaired selling tissue packets to the public for donations.

She said it could create bad perception and discrimination by the general public against the visually-impaired.

"Don't make fun of them. My visually impaired friends sell tissue packets because because it is the only work they can afford to do. Do not take advantage and seek public sympathy on the streets like selling tissues or to act blind like them," she added.

--BERNAMA