The Menace of Beggary in Pakistan

A father, buying his child a cornet at the ice cream barrow; this event would surely seem so very casual to most of us. But, the very spectacle is heartrending for the kids who stroll by the streets bare footed, jump up to every other car at the traffic signals and look at every passer-by with desperate eyes.
He too might have been standing on the outskirt of the gathering around the same ice cream barrow longing for it. With empty pockets he might have stood there all the time waiting for that miraculous moment when the ice cream man would have seen him and offered him a cone or a slider for free.He might have been standing outside a furnished sweetshop, with watering eyes instead of mouth, and this is all by the virtue of his pocket which cannot afford it. He has some money with him, but cannot spend it because he has to submit it to his master or his parents for he is the only one to feed the entire family, because his parents have proved to be too lazy for a job. We pass by several such children every day, but have we ever tried to be ‘Human’ enough and has it ever bothered us who they actually are?Seated most comfortably in our Mercedes or Corolla, we shoo them off when they approach us. Just recall the kid you snubbed last time at a traffic signal after he or she knocked at your car windowpane. We watch them daily raising their little hands before strangers and most of the time they are screamed at.
Isn’t it possible that these little beggars are just another group of harassed victims? Or worse, the ugly face of a bonded life, deliberately existing in our country. Have you ever given a thought that what compels such children to beg even in the extreme weather conditions?These are the very people whom we think are an extra burden to the country, or as useless tiny creatures. At this point, where have all our education, generosity, social services and voluntarism been forsaken? I, one day, offered a child of the kind, some sweets that I was about to share with my friends, and was most astonished at what he said. He replied: “What good would these few candies do to me and my family who had had nothing to eat since last two days? Would these cure my father of his Asthma that he has taken up due to litter picking? ” The child ran away with watering eyes, and left me at sea.I kept on thinking and thanking God for the rest of the day Our business cities like Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad are those in which reside the richest people of our country. They are also home to several poor people who dig into heaps of garbage to find bits of food and some articles to be sold for living. Such people do this, risking their lives and exposing themselves to fatal diseases.

On the other hand, live filthy rich people whose houses cost over millions of Rupees. In contrast, houses of the poor are made of rags and probably cost nothing to its ‘owners’ in terms of money but most in terms of sweat and blood.A city where the rich pays around five hundred Rupees for a burger meal, while on the other hand, a poor guy might not make a total of five hundred Rupees in an entire month. Where is our sympathy and passionate youth? Beggary has become a universal problem. The sharply increasing economic disparity and inflation has given way to beggary in many forms. This includes forced beggary, disguise beggary, and the worst of all: beggary in need. These beggars travel throughout the country in search of food and shelter in the period of time when the nation is being ‘GUIDED’ by the slogan raisers of the motto: “Roti, Kapra aur Makan”.
When one asks them the reason of begging and especially the reason of using their children for the purpose, they have a fairly hopeless answer “What else can we do except begging! ” Where is the action to the motto? WHAT A SHAME! Religion is most frequently exploited for begging because people give generously in its name because Muslim nation has always been sentimental and can easily be stimulated or made inactive on provocation of their emotions. Such children are targeted by the terrorists, who brain wash them and use them for the evil. They stimulate them in the name of religion.The children’s minds now run in accordance with their ‘rescuers’’. Unknowingly, these innocent young people, whom the Quaid e Azam once called the “Architects of The Future of Country”, now, become part of such devilish acts. The misuse of the productive manpower increases in this way. Every other day we are attending seminars and workshops for the sake of awareness but are we actually implementing it to our society! We are educating the educated, but are we actually making efforts to educate the illiterate, who need it, for real? Lets join hands and work for them.