Children begging in streets deserve a better life

Islamabad
No matter how brave, smart and tough they pretend, children begging in streets are vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and violence.
When they knock at the car windows or start walking besides a visitor in the market insisting him or her to buy something that is almost always of no use to them, they are ignored, snubbed and sometimes even pushed, but the next moment, they are found doing the same with someone else.
They irritate everyone and majority of us do not agree to help them but not many are aware of what these children actually have to pass through to live a life that is not of their own choice.
Dressed up in shabby clothes and broken dirty slippers, Naseem is one such boy. He is one of the 40 children enrolled in National Child Protection Centre (NCPC) from area around famous Zia Mosque located on Islamabad Expressway. This area is famous for child beggary. The record of NCPC shows that most of the child beggars picked by police from roads and markets of Islamabad belong to the same area.
Before coming to NCPC, Naseem used to sell stickers and coloring books on one of the traffic signals of Margalla Road.
“My parents buy different things for me depending on the demand in the market. My work starts at 8 a.m. and continues till midnight,” said 10-year-old Naseem, currently receiving non-formal education in NCPC. Clearly a malnourished child, Naseem looks hardly seven-year-old.
“We come across people of all types. Some are kind and give us money even without buying anything and some scold us of even slap us,” said Naseem. Children accompanying him laughed when Naseem described the slapping part with a Punjabi term ‘oye teri.’ He confessed that “Sometimes it really hurts.”
When asked about dangers they face on main roads, he said they try to be careful but it becomes problematic when signal becomes green when someone is taking out money for them. “Once I was hit by a motorcycle when I was trying to run back to the median.” His accomplice said that the bruise he received on his face at that time helped him to earn more money for many days.
Naseem usually earns Rs500 per day. “I give all to my parents,” he said. They are seven brothers and sisters. Famous as a tough guy among NCPC kids, Naseem wants to join army when he grows up.
Nasir, 11, another boy from Naseem’s neighbourhood, shared the rest of the story with ‘The News’. He openly talked about the mafia that controls Islamabad beggars.
He said that different areas are controlled by big boys who give bribe to management and on duty security officials. “These boys are merciless and keep roaming around in that area. If you try to sell anything or beg in their area, they beat you up or call police and get you arrested,” he said adding that only Super Market is no one’s area and controlled by the management. “But they don’t allow anyone to sell or beg.”
Nasir recently joined this group of children on street. Before that, he was studying in a madrrassa. “My parents wanted me to study. The madrassa was free but the maulvi was cruel. He used to beat us a lot,” Poor Nasir tried to tell his parents but they did not listen to him. When beating became unbearable, he stopped going to madrassa.
“It made my parents angry for a few days but their punishment was nothing as compared to what I had to bear in the madrassa.” The NPC officials said that they receive many cases in which children run away from madrassas because of the same reason.
Interestingly, he wanted to become a maulvi in future. May be because maulvi was the only power figure he came across in his life. “But I will become a good maulvi and would be kind to my students,” he said innocently.
According to NCPC officials, these playful boys from the streets of Islamabad are immensely talented. “They are good singers and dancers. They usually possess mobile phones full of songs. Their management skills are extraordinary. The older brother takes care of the sister. Once we came across the boy of 12 years who used to manage group of children which involves keeping an eye on them, protecting them from any danger, feeding them and keeping them together,” said Director NCPC Muhammad Yousaf Shah.
He said that usually the whole family is involved in this kind of beggary but parents also want their children to have better life. He said that NCPC field staff held meetings with the families of such children and after continuous awareness session and effective mobilisation, parents agreed to send their children in NCPC for non-formal education. “Some of them even cried when we were convincing them to educate their children and make them a better human being,” he said.