Ramazan is just a few weeks away, the government must launch crackdowns against beggars in different cities
LAHORE: In Pakistan, one of the top issues is of poverty. No matter where you are or what time of the day it is, you find beggars everywhere. Even if you pull your car over for a minutes at a signal or near a shop, you are surrounded by four to five beggars asking for money. These beggars refuse to go unless you drive past them, roll up the car window or give them a few coins. This issue is not of one particular city or district but the entire country. The situation outside malls and shopping places is no different.
Where extreme poverty and the severity of the living conditions these beggars survive in cannot be denied, many chose beggary as a profession while they are perfectly capable of working and earning a respectable livelihood. This not only puts additional burden on the infrastructure in the country but also prevents proper utilisation of productive labour force.
As the month of Ramazan is just a few weeks away, the government must launch crackdowns against beggars in different cities and also against those who travel from far-flung interior areas of the province only to make most of the alms giving season.
Besides, the worst part of the whole thing is that beggary exaggerates levels of poverty even when factually the situation is not extremely severe.
Mohammad Farooq Ilyas
Published in The Express Tribune, April 26th, 2018.
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