Beggars crowd in twin cities

Beggars crowd in twin cities

Islamabad : A large number of beggars including men, women and children have arrived again in almost all markets and shopping centres of the twin cities where they are using all ‘tactics’ to earn their illegal livelihood, much to the disappointment of the visitors.

“Every time the beggars are removed from markets they return back after some time and start teasing the visitors,” said Aziz Minhas, a visitor at Commercial Market in Satellite Town.

He said a permanent solution is needed to this problem otherwise thrashing them out with a force for some time is not likely to yield desired results.

Rana Sarfraz, a shopkeeper in Super Market, said the families involved in begging should be given opportunities to work to earn their livelihood because it is not possible to send them all to jails.

Sajid Iqbal, a lawyer, said the rehabilitation centres are not enough to deal with huge number of beggars so fresh legislation is required to make the beggars efficient part of the society.

He said begging has unfortunately become a profession for many families and there is a need to launch a programme to guide and convince them to adopt honorable means to make their both ends meet.

“Beggary is now complex and multi-faceted phenomena and its nature and extent has evolved over time into a loose network of organized crime,” he said. Sajid said the non-governmental organizations and government initiatives generally focus on beggary as a social problem, not a criminal problem. Additionally, he said they have focused on individual beggars, not organized begging.

He said specific initiatives like the Punjab Child Act of 2004 were clearly a step in the right direction, but these were not enough and their effectiveness is still questionable.

Article source: https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/414882-beggars-crowd-in-twin-cities