June 24, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 08, 1428

LAHORE, June 23: Professional beggars have multiplied without number in the city thanks to alleged patronisation of a significant number of them by a mafia.

“There is a mafia which remains to be unmasked and is promoting beggary to achieve vested interests. It kidnaps children and finds an easy catch in the lost and runaway kids, and uses them for beggary and sexually abuse them,” alarms a study conducted by the Child Protection & Welfare Bureau’s Punjab chapter.

The menace of beggary has also emerged as one of the traffic hazards in the city as adults and children toss the begging bowl at various junctions/crossings, parks, shopping centres and other public places. Beggars, who look and sound professional, are subjected to daylong hazardous labour and fatigue, reveals the study.

Beggars are of all ages; they include boys and girls, children and even toddlers. Then there are women who beg for alms with sucklings clinging to them. Also seen are those who people call hale and hearty workshirks.

In many cases, parents and their children follow the motorists and pedestrians as a family tradition.

Poverty, unemployment, broken homes, physical handicaps, mental retardation, natural calamities and war are what the study points out as causes of beggary.

Information gleaned by Dawn reveals that the Punjab Social Welfare Department has no data about beggars, not to speak of the exact number. Most of those who beg belong to gypsy families and roam about in the city.

In the wake of the operation launched against the beggars by the city police, many of them have assumed the guise of vendors, newspaper, food and decoration item sellers to escape arrest.

“The beggars are following our style by showing some items in their hands to avoid arrest,” a newspaper seller told this reporter at Kalma Chowk.

The destitute and deserving usually do not come on roads and public places.

According to CP&WB director programmes Zubair Ahmad Shad, there are four types of beggars operating in society; they are the destitute, handicapped, exploited beggars and professional beggars.

He said the CP&WB in cooperation with the city police had so far busted 30 gangs of child beggars, arrested around 40 operators and their aides and lodged FIRs against them under the Punjab Destitute & Neglected Children Act 2004 since February 2005.

“We had busted last such gang of Niaz, of Pakpattan, who was trying to kidnap two children Ghulam Mustafa, 14, and Azhar Iqbal, 13, both from Sahiwal, from Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh’s shrine on Thursday,” he said.

The gang would operate at the shrine, kidnap the children and force them into beggary, he added.

Answering a question, he said they had found no link of the busted gangs with some influential people, claiming that “such gangs are being operated by the low-income people”.

According to him, in-charge beggars had divided the city into different towns where they spread their followers, especially children, and force them to beg. He said there were reports that important and congested crossings were auctioned for beggars.

According to a research finalised from taking samples of street children in the city, 18 per cent children below 16 years of age were found at Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh’s shrine, 14 per cent at red-light area, 13 per cent at railway station, seven per cent at Badami Bagh, six per cent at Minar-i-Pakistan, five per cent at Lakshmi Chowk, three per cent at Regal Chowk and 34 per cent were found in others parts of the city.

Meanwhile, beggars continued to appear on roads defying the police action on Saturday.

“I live at the cottages behind the Barkat Market and beg to make both ends meet. I am begging in the market and no police official has come to stop me from begging,” 70-year-old Allah Rakhi told this reporter.

She said there were reports that some beggars were detained by the police at C-Block Model Town, but she was begging daily without any interruption.