On a stop for just about 15 seconds on every traffic signal, we catch the sight of street beggars (mainly a woman with an infant child or a disabled child) who beg for money and ask to help them for the sake of their hungry child and humanity. Have you ever thought where that money goes? Shocking as the truth is always, those street beggars don’t keep the money for themselves. For every street, every intersection, every shrine and public park, there exists a mafia that ’employees’ children and sometimes adults work for them, by begging on road and submitting them the money at the end of the day. Anything less than the required amount, the beggars are threatened and beaten up for their lack of motivation in their ‘professional career’. Even those indigent and undernourished babies we see women carrying are actually rented from households and used as a tool for sympathy. Have you ever wondered why the baby carried by the women on the streets is always sleeping? That is because they are drugged and intoxicated. In some cases, if a child is not disabled, a disability is inflicted upon them.
Such is the truth of everyday begging beggars. The government is silent on this matter. Investigations were ordered but got nowhere at all. The public is confused on whether they should give money to the poor and helpless kids. Steps must be taken to stop the begging mafia before it becomes out of control of.
Maria Arshad, Islamabad
