RETURNING home late one night from class, I saw a young girl selling pens outside a mosque, imploring passersby to buy a pen because her siblings were starving. This pulled at my heartstrings. Are children like her forced to beg, and are they being mistreated?

Research shows that most beggars are victims of informal networks of organised criminal gangs, that they are more likely to succumb to drug addiction, and that the victims are typically young boys and girls who are sometimes forced to beg by none other than their parents or guardians.

Children are entitled to their childhoods, to the right to education and protection from abuse. Our government must do more to secure the lives of numerous children who are experiencing such terrible conditions.

Sarrah Nooruddin

Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2017