Daily Times

Everywhere we go we encounter beggars; though we try our utmost to shun them, it becomes difficult to a certain degree, and we ultimately find ourselves besieged by them, and surprisingly, a torrent of complaints about miseries of life keeps reverberating around ourselves unless we offer them some amount of money.

A few days ago, I happened to return from Karachi to Shikarpur in the early morning. Sitting for breakfast on one of the local hotels nearby from where I had to catch the van to move towards my village as the van was a bit too late, I was caught up with an ugly face of poverty in the form of rising trend of begging.

I sat there and ordered the waiter to bring me a simple breakfast, a young woman of nearly 26, holding a baby by her chest, reached my bench and begged me in the name of Almighty Allah for money to who I offered ten rupees in view of the innocence of baby with her.

Within next a few seconds, before me standing a child of 12 years begged for money to whom I responded with ‘no’ albeit reluctantly, thinking that giving them money might shape their mentality and restrict them to begging bowl. Instead, I gave him a piece of advice to go and find some other work to do which is both worth appreciations and is essential to lead a comfortable and dignified life.

By other next few minutes, if you believe, I was totally surprised by a group of three aged ladies who asked me to give them each ten rupees. I quickly asked them to forgive me and leave, but they turned aggressive and hurled at me sarcastic and bad remarks which led me in a state of despair.

What was surprising is the diction and tone of voice with which they beg, either with sole intention to cajole general public into presenting them with a hefty amount of money or their dialect represents their actual conditions they have been through.

As the professional beggars to avoid toiling are found in abundance in every nook and cranny of our country, it is hard to believe that there exist people living under humble circumstances and those in actual need, to whom preferences should be given. Disguised as needy and disabled persons, as they come up with varied statements, such as their mother is suffering through diseases due to deprivation of money to present them with the recommended medicine, the seasoned beggars who got a knack of begging to avoid usual work have reached as a massive influx of persons of every age.

It is more than surprising that beggars come as organized groups in different areas demarcated accordingly by their mafia among them, where it is known as their area and nobody else is allowed to go and beg there. Poor innocent boys belonging to vulnerable segments of the society are employed on daily wages to do the begging, and much likely are they kidnapped from their home towns to other big cities and probably countries in most cases, where they are subjected to physical and mental torture and are, sorry to say, forcibly turned disabled to add to the picking up of the business.

Begging is one of the ancient professions pandemics in the world. Pakistan likewise is fraught with beggars of all type and age. From a child barely able to walk to a young handsome adult to and an old person, and from needy to an expert to a deputed person, a big portion of people is seen to be immersed in the curse of begging. There is an estimate between five to twenty-five million beggars found in Pakistan. A whopping number of just 1.2 million children, pursuant to a research conducted by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is estimated to have been on the streets of major urban cities of Pakistan.

Driven by whatever the factors are whether by sheer laziness to avoid doing other jobs, calling for gallant efforts to be executed or otherwise, they have to lift the begging bowl, one thing is crystal clear, something aggravating exists in their life that drives them to the position where they started begging. It is openly believed that there are big local mafias of beggars and they come in gangs to steal the masses with varied persuasion techniques. But the fact is, nobody himself wants to land in the state of helplessness and door-to-door begging; something, therefore, is there forced by which they go for this job.

In the developing countries like Pakistan where rate of unemployment is climbing day by day and people are highly affected by rising inflation, poor people find it convenient and have high leaning to opt for begging as in accordance with their views there remains no other option barring suicide to end their miserable life and to start begging to measure up to their biological needs, let alone to speak of basic facilities such as protective shelter and hygienic food, thereby opting for the former is an easy, fast, suitable choice.

Our attitude is directed towards those in great need. The fact can’t be denied that begging as a profession is being exercised, but it is also a fact that there are many people so affected by poverty that their way of living is terrible. Because it is heartrending to see their children going through malnutrition and their households enduring lethal diseases, people start asking for possible assistance. A relevant survey shows a large number of people below the poverty line are earning less than 4000 rupees per month, which is why their needs are hardly catered to. If in this situation when one’s household happens to have severe ailment what options one is left with, save for begging for assistance, to buy medicine for the patient?

Life of beggars who are among the poor is unpleasant. A lot of problems manifest themselves in their life once we have a take a deep look into their life. They live from hand to mouth and are worried about meeting the expenses of a square meal. Subjected to rising inflation and financial distress, it is becoming hard for them to feed their children, thereby in a try to get their children out of shackles of grinding poverty they visit from shop to shop, door to door and man to man to obtain something, which is absolutely better than looking helplessly at their children crying out in hunger.

It is lachrymose to witness the docile beggars suffering from destitution and living in insalubrious areas with their children clad in old, torn clothes trying to bear the pangs caused by hunger. The beggar community is lacking the shelter which can protect them from sizzling heat of the sun in the summer season, and from being bitten by mosquitoes due to which diseases such as Malaria are surfacing. And in winter, they have to struggle with cold; to keep themselves away from trembling, they look for every possible way from putting on worn-out jackets and hiding into sides of shops and hotels.

It equally sends shudders down my spine when I see the poor children with clothes in tatters eating the remains from the dishes on the sides of the hotel. One of many boys doing beggary in my city I encountered with when asked why he has lapsed into begging, in response asked me a question that who wants to lead such life. He further contended that the graduate and been visiting private companies, different offices, influential people with high stature to get his job, but unfortunately ended up being a beggar and it was when his mother’s health deteriorated into what needed a big amount of money to be cured. Such is the agony people are going through.

It is ridiculous that there is a law regarding begging that reads that three-year incarceration can be dispensed to those being witnessed as begging instead of legislating against unemployment, inflation, discrimination in the workplace, ineffective government medical treatment, and above all, substantial lack of quality education

I am not unaware of the fact that either professional begging has reached high levels and for it to be reduced to the lowest levels, laws were made in the past, but unfortunately, they are hardly in effect today. High Court of Lahore in 2011 ruled out that professional begging should be discouraged. But I am of the strong view that the poor, needy and disabled persons should not suffer in the pretext of techniques harnessed by professional beggars. I try to underscore that there need to be in effect the laws that put curbs on the professional begging and those that help the poor and needy receive all help that is required with the help of government organizations. It is utmost better if effective measures are to be taken in regard so that nobody feels any need to beg for the people, but the government institutions.