People’s help sought to curb child begging

LAHORE:Government alone can’t check the menace of growing child begging everywhere. People should stop giving money to these street urchins. Instead, they should give children food and coax them into going to school; this was stated by Child Protection and Welfare Bureau (CPWB) chairperson Sarah Ahmad in a press briefing at CPWB in Baghbanpura on Monday.

CPWB chairperson Sarah Ahmad informed that Child Protection and Welfare Bureau has launched a crackdown on child beggars and took 50 children into custody who used to beg at different chowks in the City.

The Bureau will keep these children into its custody for a month and work on their rehabilitation. This will discourage the parents of these children from sending their other children out to beg and the children, who will stay away from their family, will stay away from begging, she added.

“We have shifted some of the child beggars to our bureaus in other cities such as Bahawalpur. When the parents who pushed their children to beg, will have to travel to another city to see their child, they will think twice before giving the begging bowl in their hands again,” she said.

She said the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau appeals to the masses to desist from giving money to child beggars and call on CPWB Helpline 1121 when they see a child asking for alms. She further said that it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of street children in the city in the absence of local bodies for the last three years with local government elections still not in sight.

‘The Bureau’s rescue operation is not limited to begging children, it is primarily a rehabilitation centre for the children who are ill-treated by society in some way and have nowhere to go. The CPWB has registered 293 FIRs on domestic violence alone in a year apart from rescuing newborns that are thrown away,’ she informed.