Tender-aged children who should be poring over books are instead seen at traffic lights with their hands drawn out asking for alms indicating a failure of the awareness campaign to end begging. Recently, the Child Protection Welfare Bureau (CPWB) Rawalpindi distributed leaflets and put up advertisements that children belonged in schools and playgrounds not on the roads tapping on car windows beseeching people for money. However, the campaign seems to have fizzled out as residents of the densely populated Rawalpindi indicate a rise in the number of beggars.
Qasim Nawaz, a resident familiar with the nooks and crannies of the city, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that most of these children come from the ten illegal shanties near Court Road and Sawan Bridge. “In recent times, on my daily commute I have witnessed an upsurge in these young kids asking for money aided by their parents,” Nawaz said. He was of the view that inflation plays a part but in general begging was more of a business. Expecting illiterate children and parents to understand an awareness campaign not tailored for them is quite odd, as per Sheikh Anwarul Haq, a social activist working for children’s rights.
“This is the state’s failure that it cannot keep children in schools and provide their parents welfare benefits so they do not resort to the ill that is begging,” an irate Haq said. Junaid Malik, who frequently gets stuck in the city’s rush hour traffic on his way back from work, seconding Nawaz, narrated, “a few days ago, a child who was asking for money in standstill traffic fell into an uncovered manhole on the road and the locals had to save his life.” Malik agreed that in the past few months, the number of children on the roads had increased and opined that this was because of the refugee influx in the country. A spokesperson for CPWB, speaking on the condition of anonymity, talking about the department’s awareness campaign failing, said that they had already done what they could with the little funding they received.
“We barely have any vehicles to use to round up children and their parents. It is difficult to operate with such limited resources,” he said. He alleged that the department would be in a better position if it was not easily influenced and if its resources were not used for personal matters. “Most officers use the department’s vehicles to run personal errands. The icing on the cake is that whenever we catch beggars, one phone call is all it takes to release them,” the official informed this reporter. The CPWB’s evidently terrible performance is not news to prominent child psychologist, Nadeem Mir, who lives in the city and agreed with the allegations put against the department.
“These state institutions are complicit in encouraging begging as a business. They only spend money on self-projection and self-promotion. I would say the CPWB has become a begging mafia abettor,” a displeased Mir told The Express Tribune.
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