PESHAWAR, Feb 17: The provincial government will open a Daar-ul-Kafala, a rehabilitation centre for child beggars as soon as a suitable building becomes available, official sources said here on Wednesday.

The NWFP social welfare department, which is already running two rehabilitation centres for male and female beggars, plans to open a rehabilitation centre for the child beggars under the age of 18, but presently a suitable building is not available.

"A building in Hayatabad which was vacated by an Afghan NGO is selected for the centre but it is so big that only renovation of a portion would cost huge amount," said an official.

The children's rehabilitation centre will be inaugurated next month in one portion of the building in Hayatabad or any other rented building if it is not possible, official sources said.

Initially, 160 child beggars, both boys and girls under 18, will be enrolled in the rehabilitation centre for a period of three months. During this period the children will be taught various skills and also provided with informal education.

The provincial government would initially run this three-year project and it has allocated an amount of Rs 6.305 million. In the current financial year an amount of Rs 2.3 million will be spent on the centre, official sources said.

When the centre is fully established the provincial government will hand over the project to the district government, officials said. The government has opened rehabilitation centres but in the absence of an effective legal mechanism to curb beggary, the beggars who spend three months or few days, in some cases, never abandon this habit, said an official.

The already existing law, Vagrancy Ordinance 1958, didn't require registration of FIR against the professional beggars and it is a bailable offence offering the beggars to continue begging despite the Daar-ul-Kafalas established in the provincial metropolis, official said.

The number of women beggars in the women's Daar-ul-Kafala costing Rs 2.97 million inaugurated in September 2004 also remained very low. Same is the case with Daar-ul-Kafala for the male beggars where presently 25 beggars had been enrolled though the number of beggars is higher in the city.

According to the police sources, there are two organised groups who have 200 to 250 professional beggars each in their gangs. The social welfare department has completed interviews of the candidates to run the centre. About 13 staff members will be appointed at the centre.