The State Minister also said she will hold preliminary discussions with relevant institutions including the police, local authorities and the National Child Protection Authority to curb this situation.

The matter was discussed when the Ministerial Consultative Committee on Women's, Children's Affairs and Social Empowerment met in Parliament recently under the chairmanship of State Ministers Geeta Kumarasinghe and Anupa Pascual.

During the discussion it was revealed that the use of children and women for begging has become a business as it is a common practice to hire children for begging, while some children are given drugs and used for begging, and women pretend to be pregnant.

Although there are legal provisions in this regard, attention was also focused on the issues of proper implementation at practical level.

The State Ministers directed the officials to take steps to obtain the relevant data on the beggars in this country through the survey of beggars to be carried out by the Department of Social Services in September.

(Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)