June 1, 2006

Ten-year-old Nauman and Waqas used to pay Rs50 daily to their employer to avoid torture. The boys spent two years begging for alms, from dawn to dusk, at various intersections of the provincial metropolis. A team of the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau rescued them from Liberty Market.

Nauman, who belongs to Jeranwala, left home some three years ago to escape from punishment over small domestic issues. “I met Waqas, another runaway boy of Sharkpur, near Data Darbar and got a job in a tea shop in Anarkali, but, following a theft charge, we left the job. We then started living on footpaths near Data Darbar where Malang Imam Bakhsh, a local beggar mafia chief, forced us into beggary. He would beat us severely whenever we failed to pay him Rs50.”

Imam Bakhsh was arrested after Nauman and Waqas were rescued. The two boys were handed over to their guardians. The bureau has rescued 1900 child beggars from different intersections of the city since November 2004, when it was established. Out of these children 1650 have been handed over to their parents\guardians so far.

Despite its success in reuniting children with their parents, the bureau has managed to arrest very few agents of the beggar mafia, which underscores the need for taking more concrete action. All the rescued children had similar stories to narrate.

Israr, a 10-year-old boy from Kohat, is another victim of severe torture. His captors would burn his legs whenever he was unable to meet the daily target. Being an orphan, he feared the beatings from his relatives and was reluctant to go back. However, after his rescue the bureau had to send him back to them as they happened to be his legal guardians. After a while Israr left his home once again, but this time he went directly to the bureau.

Statistics reveal that the majority of the children caught while seeking alms, are members of beggar families and not the beggar mafia. Poverty compels people to force their children into begging. Zubair Ahmed Shad, the assistant director of CPWB, says, “These children are handed over to their parents\guardians on the assurance that they will not be made to beg, but regardless of the promises, some are seem begging again.” He says these families can’t quit the habit of begging and if needed would move to other parts of the province to continue their business or to evade the authorities.

Sabeha Bibi along with her children –– five-year-old Kainaat and three-year-old Fida Hussain –– beg outside the Railway Station. She left her house in Muzaffarghar due to domestic disputes with her husband. To avoid her husband’s beatings, for not complying to his wishes to get money from her parents, she bid him adieu.

“I shifted to my parents house in Abbas Naggar (Lahore). On failing to find a job as a housemaid, I started begging. My children, especially Fida Husain whose lower part is paralysed, help me earn between Rs300-500 daily,” she says narrating her story. The bureau apprehended Sabeha Bibi along with her children and released her on the condition that she would not force her children into this profession again.

According to Shad the main purpose of the bureau is to rescue child beggars and rehabilitate them. Justifying a small number of children rescued by them so far, he says unless a comprehensive mechanism regarding rehabilitation is developed, it is no use picking up a large number of child beggars from the streets. Regarding the bureau’s inability to curb beggar mafia agents, he says that the rescued children often change statements and are afraid to give accurate information about their captors.

On the future prospects of the Bureau’s mission, Shad says that a new child protection centre, to be opened at Shalamar, will accommodate over 500 destitute children and several NGOs are also willing to extend their cooperation in this regard. Unfortunately, despite all these measures a large number of child beggars can still be seen on the roads.

While scores of children are found begging in different areas of the city, a good number of them congregate at bus and railway stations. These are children who have left their homes for greener pastures. Seven-year-old Muhammad Amin tried to board a Faisalabad-bound train in a bid to run away from his family who were forcing him to work. “I don’t want to go back as my family will force me to sell eggs. It is a tiresome job. I want to go to school and become a doctor,” he said, explaining the reasons for his leaving to the railway police constable. After some persuasion Amin agreed to return to his family.

Another 10-year-old, Nadeem Iqbal of Multan, was caught by the railway police while travelling to Bahawalpur by train. He had taken this extreme step because his father would beat him up on petty issues.

Runaway children are more prone to sexual harassment, beggary and forced labour. According to Society of Protection of the Rights of Child, some 10,000 children living in the provincial metropolis are those who have left their houses for various reasons. It says that over 1,500 children in different prisons of the province are those who have run away from their families. This number is increasing at an alarming rate.

Due to their vulnerability these children become victims of people like Javed Iqbal. Javed Iqbal, a serial killer, confessed having killed more than 100 such children in Lahore some six years ago. Later on he committed suicide in jail.

According to an estimate nearly 31 per cent of the children leave homes due to the negligence of the parents, 21 per cent flee from schools as they do not want to continue studies while those who are afraid of physical torture by teachers are 10 per cent of the total of runaway children. The percentage of children fed up of ‘bonded labour’ at various houses is 13 per cent while torture by parents has forced 11 per cent to flee from their homes.

It’s the government’s responsibility to rescue and provide shelter to destitute children under child-related laws, especially the Punjab Destitute and Neglected Children Act, 2004. Under the act, the government may establish one or more courts for a given area and appoint a presiding officer in consultation with the Lahore High Court. Until a court is established in an area the LHC may confer powers upon a sessions judge or an additional sessions judge to carry out necessary legal proceedings.

The law provides that the court shall decide a case within one month from the date of production of a child. The court may also order the admission of a destitute child to a child protection institution or his custody be entrusted to a suitable person until he attains the age of 18.

Fines and imprisonments have been introduced by the court for unauthorised custody of children, their employment for begging, giving intoxicants as well as liquor or narcotic drugs to them, permitting them to enter places where liquor or drugs are sold, exposing them to seduction and sexually harassing them.