District admin yet to check ‘trained’ beggars

LAHORE

Majority of city roads, busy crossings and commercial markets are flooded with "trained" beggars who are using every psychological tactic to influence human minds to get sympathy and pity to mint money from pockets of the citizens.

Holding a newborn, exposing injuries, projecting herself as a widow and etc are some usual tactics the beggar mafia is using to convince the citizens to give them money. Other than the old ways, beggar mafia is also using some new trends such as one can witness a man sitting on a roadside with a woman and small children posing themselves homeless and many people give them money, which they don’t know is actually going to some mafia and the beggar will only get a small share from the total income of the day.

It is pertinent to note that despite various drives, Lahore’s district administration has completely failed to eradicate organised beggary from the provincial metropolis. Majority of the favourite targets of the beggars are various crossings of College Road, Johar Town, Mall Road, Jail Road, Main Boulevard Gulberg, Multan Road, Ferozpur Road, Kachehri Road, Faisal Town, Canal Bank Road, Anarkali, Liberty Market, Hussain Chowk, Moon Market Allama Iqbal Town, Barkat Market and etc.

At every busy crossing one can find beggars especially children, disabled, young women with infants and old individuals fearlessly rushing towards the vehicles demanding money. These beggars use various means to influence the commuters and general public which included fractured body parts, burn marks, disfigured limbs, crying infants, females claiming to be widows having children especially daughters.

Similarly the beggars use various types of voice pitches to get sympathy of the people.

“They regularly change places with each other so that every time people see a new face and don’t tag any of the beggar as professional,” said a senior official of district administration. Likewise, if a citizen offers a beggar to start a respectable job, he/she will flatly refuse and turn towards other ‘customers’.

It is also observed that majority of beggars operates in groups and every member of the gang is being monitored by a ‘contractor’ who is sitting or roaming nearby in disguise. These beggars pay around 30 to 50 percent of the total income to the ‘contractor’, who comes to help them in case of a police raid or a fight with a prospective ‘customer’. 

Another official said that begging is a punishable offence and police was repeatedly requested to take action against beggars but in vain. He said in 2011, the Lahore High Court had ruled that the government should strictly enforce laws to discourage ‘professional beggary’ and set up homes for the destitute and improve charity disbursements. He revealed that a welfare home with a capacity of 100 people is under-construction in the Raiwind area whereas the CDGL had notified Edhi and Subhani welfare homes for the purpose.

Another problem being faced by district government teams while catching beggars is resistance from the general public especially in the localities with religious buildings and shrines like Data Darbar. Officials said they faced strict reaction of citizens as well as business community around Data Darbar area whenever an operation was launched against beggars. Lord Mayor Lahore said that operation against beggars was being carried out in routine and would continue against professional beggars across the city. He said the menace would be eradicated soon and appealed to the citizens to stop giving money to these professionals.