Parents force their children to beg because of the poverty that engulfs their family
KARACHI: Children begging on streets is a heartbreaking sight. There is perhaps no one who has never felt sad for these children. Even if one doesn’t have a change to spare, one does look at them and hopes for their better future from the comforts of one’s air-conditioned cars.
Now the Sindh government has thought of doing something for these children. The government’s new policy looks towards banning child beggary in the province along with enrolling these children in government-owned welfare schools. While this is a noble cause, there is one issue that even activists fighting for an end to child labour or in this instance child beggary tend to forget.
Children beg not only because they do not have the means to seek an education but to become breadwinners for their families. The reason behind our streets filled with children asking for alms is not the lack of education but increasing poverty.
Parents force their children to beg because of the poverty that engulfs their family. The bigger their families are the bigger the number of helping hands required, pushing children — as little as two years of age — to beg.
In such a case, banning children to beg and putting them in schools is a limited approach. These children should be given financial stipends for attending school — money that they can take back home for being educated at school instead of begging at a street. Or their parents should be provided job opportunities to be able to sustain a livelihood. The issue needs a holistic approach.
Anum Khilji
Published in The Express Tribune, November 15th, 2018.
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