Chasing shadows
Handling social evils like beggary merely by twisting arms of law is not likely to produce any positive results
The Sindh government’s move to take measures to check and control growing child beggary is a welcome decision. A cabinet meeting on Tuesday directed the authorities and departments concerned to invoke the mechanism provided in three different enactments — Sindh Child Act 1955, West Pakistan Vagrancy Ordinance 1958 and Sindh Child Protection Authority Act 2011 — to eliminate this growing menace. The Social Welfare Department and district administrations have been ordered to round up child beggars with the help of police and send them to shelter homes for rehabilitation.
Handling social evils like beggary merely by twisting arms of law is not likely to produce any positive results. Going by past experiences one can safely argue that most of the legislative acts aimed to check and control social evils, be it beggary or narcotic addiction, at the end of the day become a tool in the hands of law-enforcement agencies, especially the police, who exploit it to their own advantage. It is commonly believed, and there are reports and findings to suggest it, that there is lately a strong nexus between beggary and street crimes, especially in Karachi.
Some other studies on the menace indicate that it is rapidly turning into an industry. Organised groups operate in different parts of Karachi and other cities where roads, thoroughfares, traffic intersections and other spaces in and around the busy markets are rented out on contracts to carry on this ‘beggary business.’ And this obviously is done with blessings of local authorities and the area police. These studies even suspect a relationship between disappearance or kidnappings of children and the ‘profession’ of beggary.
There is another utopian aspect to this decision of the Sindh cabinet where the relevant authorities have been directed to round up child beggars wherever they are found and pace them in shelter homes for rehabilitation. Does anybody in the cabinet have an idea what would be the number of rounded-up children and what is the capacity of the shelter homes to accommodate them?
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2018.
Handling social evils like beggary merely by twisting arms of law is not likely to produce any positive results. Going by past experiences one can safely argue that most of the legislative acts aimed to check and control social evils, be it beggary or narcotic addiction, at the end of the day become a tool in the hands of law-enforcement agencies, especially the police, who exploit it to their own advantage. It is commonly believed, and there are reports and findings to suggest it, that there is lately a strong nexus between beggary and street crimes, especially in Karachi.
Some other studies on the menace indicate that it is rapidly turning into an industry. Organised groups operate in different parts of Karachi and other cities where roads, thoroughfares, traffic intersections and other spaces in and around the busy markets are rented out on contracts to carry on this ‘beggary business.’ And this obviously is done with blessings of local authorities and the area police. These studies even suspect a relationship between disappearance or kidnappings of children and the ‘profession’ of beggary.
There is another utopian aspect to this decision of the Sindh cabinet where the relevant authorities have been directed to round up child beggars wherever they are found and pace them in shelter homes for rehabilitation. Does anybody in the cabinet have an idea what would be the number of rounded-up children and what is the capacity of the shelter homes to accommodate them?
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2018.