Source: Tehran Municipality

According to an opinion poll carried out among Tehran citizens above 15 years, most of them have noted that there are fewer beggars on the streets compared to past years.

Woman beggar with her child, Vali Assr Avenue, Tehran
Archive photo (by Fariba Amini, 2005)

According to SAMA, Reza Mostafavi, Tehran Municipality's director general for social and cultural studies, announced that the poll was carried out to measure the impact of Tehran Municipality's plan to collect panhandlers and most citizens said that the number of beggars has reduced and only 2 percent were opposed to this conclusion.

The official said that 62-72 percent of citizens believed that begging is a result of laziness of some people and others blamed inefficiency of social security system, people's tender feelings, and joblessness as other causes.

Mostafavi said 92 percent of people have noted that begging makes the city uglier while "disturbing the psychological security of people, encouraging laziness, playing with people's sentiments, and lack of trust in truly poor people" as other outcomes of begging.

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