July 22, 2004

With 40 per cent and more of the Pakistani populace living below the poverty line, a fact increasingly broadcast by the popular press and other media, the well-heeled are seized with a burgeoning guilty-conscience, writes Adil Ahmed

The street kids and assorted street elders, found at the crossroads, milk the commuter, using guilt as their weapon of choice. Guilt is a formidable and primary ‘weapon’ that the street people use with devastating effect in this psychological war. So much so that, it is rumoured, begging has acquired the status of a major money-spinner in the teeming metropolis of Karachi. The ‘choice’ is theirs to make, between honest labour with dignity and a life full of public rejection and personal dejection. The absence of adequate societal support makes the right choice easy.

With over 40 per cent of the Pakistani population living below the poverty line, a fact increasingly broadcast by the popular press and other media, the well-heeled are seized with a burgeoning guilty conscience. Enter the begging brigades. It’s a whole army out there, deployed with unerring precision at the many crossroads and intersections, bazaars and mosques of Karachi. Their mobility is amazing, thanks to the hyperactive minibuses and buses, and they qualify entirely for the status of a ‘rapid deployment force’. By some accounts the upper strata of the begging brigades come to work in taxis and chauffeured private cars, and some are known to carry mobile phones. One finds this hard to believe, although there is proof of organized begging gangs in the city, and it is allegedly run like a professional business. But the ones with mobile phones are probably intelligence agency operatives disguised as beggars reporting back their findings!

Driving to and fro you see the same faces at the same intersections, each with a different pitch and style. On frequent prompting by commuters quite a few have taken to selling dusters and face towels. The logic is simple and compelling. The dignity of man and woman is sacrosanct, and the shameless pleading for mercy before fellow man and woman compromises that dignity. It forever makes that individual dependent upon charity, vanquishing the spirit of enterprise within.

The spirit of enterprise, and its consequent rewards, enhances self-pride and dignity. The look of a little girl, no more than five years old, sitting with her mother and assorted others is an example. At first she was just another pesky beggar, like the others. Now she waits with patience every Friday near a mosque. She has these good quality jharoos (dusters), and a pair of sunshades for the car. They’re not cheap either. The duster sells for 30 rupees and the sunshades for 100. As people approach she displays her wares, giving a radiant smile full of self-confidence. In a place like Karachi you can’t do without dusters. The transaction is powered by a legitimate need, and not just pity for the poor. She understands that. It gives her stature. She’s now a respectable member of society.

The problem Karachi faces is massive, and that is not surprising. Karachi is a huge city. They once said that everything was big in Texas, something which now truly applies to Karachi. Big problems, and big opportunities. The machinery of the state seems in a stupor of sorts, overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of numbers, and an absence of any coherent policy and action plan on the part of the government. Finding itself unable to remedy the situation, and roundly blamed and castigated for its failure, functionaries have turned on their masters in some cases, and actively aid and abet the criminalization of human despair.

There’s a heated debate going on about the giving of alms to street people. There are some who feel very strongly that these people should be ignored, and if nobody gave them alms they would be dissuaded from what has become their vocation. Then there are those who advocate exercising discretion, and screening out the genuinely needy from the professional beggars. Yet another group feels that the giving of alms should be unconditional and without sitting in judgement. It feels that irrespective of whether the beggar is a professional or amateur, he or she has shed his or her dignity by pleading, and should be quickly given some money to retrieve him or her from that pathetic state.

There is a fourth group that proposes a weighty solution to the problem. It involves the exercise of empathy and responsible citizenship, and getting proactive in the dignified rehabilitation of these impoverished and helpless folk. More than money, it calls for a deployment of the individual’s time and effort to understand the conditions that have brought the beggar on to the street, ascertain the level of intelligence and physical ability in him or her, and then take requisite measures to settle them in a sustainable vocation. That is the ideal situation for which the rewards to both individuals -- the philanthropist and the beneficiary -- are enormous at the tangible and intangible levels. The benefit to society at large of such a mindset and approach cannot be quantified.

 

Kids should be in school

A popular feeling is that street kids should be in school where they can assimilate with mainstream society and become useful citizens. The physical manifestation of this feeling once again requires a proactive mindset amongst the empowered citizenry. A virtual adoption of the street kids is required, with the continuous monitoring of progress and the provision of material provisions that ensure the child does not stand out among his or her peers as a lesser individual. This approach is expensive in terms of time, effort and money. The street children and their parents or minders have become used to a cash flow.

Rag pickers have been immortalized by literature, and the story of Karachi’s rag pickers bears researching and telling in detail. They are almost entirely from the Frontier with a fairly large representation from Afghanistan. Equipped with very large polypropylene bags, they rummage the garbage heaps of residential areas in search of anything reusable or recyclable. The more fortunate ride bicycles with two large bags balanced on either side of the back wheel. There is an organized system of collection and selling that earns these kids on average 100 rupees per day. What’s unique about these youngsters is their enduring sense of dignity that leads them to eke out a livelihood in the garbage dumps rather than beg on the roads.

That dignity takes a bit of a hard knock at night when they line up outside nihari hotels, sitting on the roadside and patiently awaiting a free meal. These are sturdy young lads and what they earn doesn’t come close to satiating their youthful hunger pangs after a day of hard labour. Where we as hosts fail badly is the manner in which we treat them, herding them like animals and making them eat off dirty pavements and roads, while the paying customers occupy the chairs and tables. The soup kitchens of the West are more sensitized to the dignity of the destitute and homeless. The callous and inhuman mindset here stands out as a glaring reminder of how little we have evolved since the dark ages.

 

The disabled

Veterans of the Afghan War no doubt, or some horrendous accident, these beggars usually lack a limb. Riding on indigenously designed little pushcarts, they are propelled by a bicycle chain attached to a hand-operated gizmo. A case of pedalling with the hand. They are remarkably presentable in clean clothes, moving about the bazaar and streets no more than six inches above the ground with just their heads barely visible above the car bonnet. Nobody complains, and in any case these people too have a right to survive.

 

Coping with deformity

This is one segment of the street people that needs to be addressed forthwith. There are two in particular who require medical attention. Both operate in Karachi’s posh DHA precinct of Khayaban-i-Shamsheer. One has an overgrown tumour that covers his entire face, and the other has a long spindly arm twisted at grotesque angles. There’s another one also, a hunchback. It is a severe reality check, and immediately the God-fearing are thankful for their normal appearance, something that we tend to take for granted.

What must go on through their minds as they see the horror and revulsion on the faces of those who peer at them out of car windows? Their alienation from society is complete. These people need to be prioritized for relocation to rehabilitation centres. If such centres do not exist, then concerned citizens, both corporate and private, and the government should try and establish a few.

 

The gypsy factor

Karachi is also host to a sizable gypsy population seeking its clement climate in the winters, and driven to it by drought in the summers. For them Karachi is a land of plenty, and its crossroads are littered with rupees, if not paved with gold. Women and children abound, with their hands spread and with pleading looks on their faces. Women carrying suckling babies in their arms in the noonday heat, twice worsened by the asphalt on the roads. A blistering heat, with the baby’s head covered by a flimsy cloth to keep the sun at bay. It’s either an extreme case of desperation, or callousness, that drives women to carry their young in such fashion at the crossroads. In either case society must bear responsibility for a state of affairs that often defies comprehension.

Faced with such a dismal ground reality, the citizen’s torment turns to anger when the media splashes news of gross irregularity and outright embezzlement in government departments, especially monies entrusted to the government zakat committees. The public trust is violated with impunity and accountability has become a term helplessly diluted by public apathy. Truly, a people get the governance they deserve. Society survives because a few within it earnestly feel they deserve better. Unless this number quickly achieves critical mass there is little hope for change.

Some people feel that the macro manifestation of our leadership’s mindsets finds expression at the micro grassroots level. The infamous kashkol that the present dispensation claims to have broken has spawned over the years a kashkol mentality. If it is okay for our top leadership to beg for alms at international forums, it is certainly all right to beg for alms at the crossroads. Two wrongs, however, do not make a right.

Even working on the assumption that the effort is well meaning, and the monies well directed, the absence of basic counselling and training ensures that the capital amounts will be eaten into, and the vicious cycle repeated, adding to the burgeoning ranks of the street people.

The last few months have seen Karachi host a series of workshops and seminars with tantalizing titles like ‘improving efficiency’, ‘effective delegation’, ‘leadership – the care & growth model’, ‘transformational change management’ and ‘release your brakes!’ Unfortunately, the workshops have catered to the already well-sensitized private sector, whereas the real need for enlightened good governance and best management practices lies in the domain of the public servant and government bureaucrat. Unless these cadres can rightsize their attitudes and mindsets, the silent majority of Karachi’s citizenry will remain uninspired, and the street people will continue to live their lives on the edge, with no hope of a better tomorrow.