Officials in the state of Bihar have created a novel idea to both rehabilitate beggars and help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS: pay beggars to sing songs and enact plays to raise awareness of the deadly virus.

They want to train many of the estimated 100,000 homeless in the state to put on street plays about AIDS and to sing songs about it in trains and buses and on the sides of busy roads.

Vijay Prakash, Bihar's welfare secretary, tells Reuters, "Beggars are great actors and very creative. They always had the skills but lacked direction, which we are giving them, and the experiments have so far been very successful."

The participants will be paid a few hundred rupees for their work. Prakash says some are currently being studied to determine their natural talents. Next they will receive further training to hone their skills.

"Some can dance very well, and we hope our training program will help them earn a living," Prakash says.