Begging in Karachi

The growing menace of beggars at traffic lights was brought to the attention of courts the other day by a petition filed by one Sumaira Mohammadi and heard by a nine-member constitutional bench headed by Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha and included Justices Salim Jessar, Omar Sial, Yousaf Ali Sayeed, Abdul Mobeen Lakho, Zulfikar Ali Sangi, Sana Akram Minhas, Khadim Hussain Soomro, and Arbab Ali Hakro.

The Sindh High Court’s constitutional bench it seemed agreed with the views of the petitioners and ordered the Karachi traffic police to take action against beggars at the city’s traffic signals.

Begging is big business in the metropolitan city of Karachi. According to a report, there are more than 130,000 beggars in Karachi and 300,000 beggars come from other cities every year before the holy month of Ramazan, which is just around the corner so we need to brace ourselves for the yearly assault.

Not only that these beggars descend on Karachi but they also fly out to neighboring countries for begging thus tarnishing our image abroad and creating difficulties for the ordinary Pakistani working abroad.

Yes these beggars have passports and go on valid visas under several pretexts helped by agents and others who are not doing a service to the country by helping these beggars and undermining our image abroad.

Even before the verdict of the constitutional bench the government had blocked the passports of several agents for their assistance in helping to send beggars abroad. The average income of a beggar is estimated to be Rs.850 per day.

While the courts have only ordered clearance of traffic roundabouts there are other centers of begging in the city. The one place that tops the list are the shopping centers in the city.

It is a great effort for anyone going to a shopping center to reach his or her desired shop through the number of beggars that rush towards every stopping car not with humility but with such aggression as if they are not asking for alms but some long overdue debt owed to them by the people coming to shop.

So what is the international scene as far as begging is concerned. It is not very pleasant and some countries are top of the list .These include Bangladesh, Nigeria, Brazil, India, Madagascar, South Sudan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Nigeria, etc.

Many of these countries have several things in common like civil war, political corruption, and lack of resources in an out of control population explosion. An interesting fact is that the richest beggar in the world lives in India.

He is Bharat Jain, dubbed the world’s richest beggar, and has amassed a fortune of 7.5 crore through begging in Mumbai. He earns 60,000-75,000 monthly, owns two apartments, and rents out shops. He has accumulated this wealth by begging for last 40 years on the streets of Mumbai.

Begging by those who are truly in need and forced to hit the streets just to keep themselves and their families avoid starvation is usually a small percentage compared to the number of professional beggars that in many cases are controlled by criminal gangs who receive the majority share of the day’s proceedings. It is these gangs that are in many cases involved in child snatching and kidnapping. This is the most heinous crime as what they are doing is taking away a well-settled child from a comfortable and safe environment and force him or her into beggary and live in inhuman conditions just so they could profit from the child.

In Karachi, there has been an increase in child-kidnapping cases with the latest are the two children gone missing from the Garden area.

It has been several days and the children are still missing. Who knows what trials and tribulations these children are undergoing and where will they end up.

It is heartening to note that the honorable courts have given importance to this petition regarding beggars on our round abouts.

This case requires serious perusal by the petitioner and also the law enforcement agencies as this can expose the beggar mafia and not only give us some peace when we stop at red lights but expose the crimes behind begging in Karachi.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025