Ho Chi Minh City plans to train all beggars and provide them jobs by 2015.

An elderly beggar in HCMC

The Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs announced a draft of the plan that will be carried out in two phases at a meeting yesterday with other agencies.

In the first phase through 2013, it will be carried out in Districts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, Phu Nhuan, Binh Thanh, and Tan Binh.

In the next two years, it will be extended to the rest of the city.

Authorities will round up beggars and take them to social welfare centers to provide them healthcare, basic knowledge of law, and short-term vocational training.

Teams will be set up to help them find suitable jobs after training.

Every year the city will provide jobs to 800 of them and work with provinces and cities to which the beggars belong and reintegrate them into the local communities.

The department expects to send back around 1,000 of them with guarantees from their families.

The guarantors will be required to make a pledge that they will be responsible for ensuring they do not go back to begging.

Last year, the city’s Social Sponsor Center took in 7,400 beggars, later returning 2,400 of them home and providing the rest vocational training and jobs, the department said.