EDITORIAL: The poverty in today’s Pakistan is rampant, but the growing number of beggars on the streets has not much to do with it. Beggary in itself is an old profession, but today it is a fully organized racket. Of course there are beggars of all age groups, but children are best bet to be employed as pawns for begging.
There is no official figure about the number of child beggars but independent sources put their number at 1.2 million.
And equally disturbing is the fact that since the promulgation of the Pakistan Loitering Ordinance 1958, which is hardly in tune with the times, there has been no organized official plan to control beggary, rescue children employed by the mafias.
And the imbroglio gets all the more complicated given that people of Pakistan are generous by nature. But all is not lost yet – there is a ray of hope given the Islamabad administration’s determination to take action against rackets employing beggars on basis of intelligence reports and footage from CCTV cameras installed as part of Safe-City Project.
According to official sources, the crackdowns will mainly focus on heads of rackets and their facilitators who use beggars, including women and children for their financial gains. And the persons who provide pick-n-drop service and the parents of child beggars too would be questioned, and if found guilty would be duly punished.
Small children approaching motorists at the busy traffic signals and commercial areas is a common sight. And as evening falls one would notice the child beggars being picked up for journey back to their homes, which in case of Islamabad are in the slums of the capital city.
Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Irfan Memon is rightly concerned about this menace and wants to eradicate it, but what next after the little beggars are taken into custody? According to him, “we will launch a crackdown and then needy children and women involved in begging will be shifted to various centres for their rehabilitation”.
One would like to know: where are these centres and who will look after these unfortunate child beggars? Their rehabilitation constitutes a huge challenge to the deputy commissioner and the people at large. Helping them grow as productive and responsible citizens through collective efforts is perhaps the only solution. For that three things come to mind.
One, their parents should be approached and counseled against letting mafias misuse their progeny. Two, the involved racketeers should be arrested and duly punished. Three, the general public should be advised not to give alms to children at the traffic signals, at the gates of hospitals and pharmacies. All of this is doable.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022