447 held in drive against beggars

LAHORE
A majority of beggars in the City are trained professionals and operating in a highly organised way to get alms from the citizens.
These beggars could be seen begging on different roads, roundabouts and commercial centres. Many people give them money, but they don’t know that their money is actually going to a mafia and the beggars will get a small share from their total ‘income’ in a day.
During the month of March 2015, Community Development Department of the district government arrested 447 beggars including 255 males, 184 females and eight eunuchs from different spots of the City.
EDO (CD) Ch Ishtiaq said these beggars were arrested from Mall Road, Jail Road, Main Boulevard, Gulberg, Multan Road, Ferozpur Road, Katchery Road, College Road, Canal Bank Road, Anarkali, Liberty Market, Hussain Chowk, Moon Market Allama Iqbal Town and Barkat Market.
One can find beggars including children, the disabled, young women with infants and old men at every nook and cranny of the City and they fearlessly rush towards vehicles standing at traffic signals, parking lots and outside commercial centres.
The beggars used various means to influence the commuters and general public which included broken body parts, burn marks, disfigured limbs, crying infants, females claiming to be widows having children, especially daughters. They use different types of voice pitches to get people’s sympathy.
They regularly change their areas with one another to give an impression that they are not professional beggars. If a citizen offers a job to a beggar, he or she flatly refuses to have a job and turns towards other ‘customers’.
It is observed that majority of beggars operate 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 per cent 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’. EDO (CD) Ch Ishtiaq while talking to The News said majority of beggars are trained professionals and exactly know how to influence the human psyche. He said majority of these beggars could earn more than a labourer’s income who works in scorching heat.
He said CDGL had launched a drive against beggars and during the month of March 2015 its teams arrested 447 beggars who were handed over to a welfare organisation for rehabilitation. He said in the first phase a beggar was kept in a welfare home for five days and given counselling. He said if the beggar was caught again, he was kept in welfare home for 10 days and for a third time a criminal case was registered against him.
Presence of an organised mafia behind the beggars could be authenticated by the fact that the CDGL officers receive telephone calls from influential people for the release of beggar(s) from the welfare homes whereas a good number of lawyers also come for their rescue.
A CDGL official said begging was a punishable offence and police were 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 at Raiwind area whereas Edhi and Subhani Welfare also keep beggars.
Another problem being faced by CDGL 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 from citizens as well as business community around Data Darbar area whenever an operation was launched against the beggars.
DDO (CD) Ashraf Janjua said the CDGL will continue its operation against professional beggars and soon after the completion of CDGL’s welfare home in Raiwind, the beggars will be sent there.
He said technical training will also be given to beggars so that they could get a respectable status in life.