Vagrants increasingly occupying roadside spaces

Ironically professional beggars have started citing high unemployment, inflation for being out on the streets

KARACHI:

As high inflation, low literacy and rampant unemployment continues to deprive the economically underprivileged segments of society, many are left with no option but to turn to the roads.

While poverty in itself is an inescapable formula for lifelong marginalisation, its repercussions are greatly multiplied when poor schooling and inadequate salaries, which define the lived realities of the lower classes, are coupled with back-breaking inflation. Void of all hope, given burgeoning market prices, many destitute families have started begging on the roads in order to earn quick money and put food on their tables.

According to Imran-ul-Haq, a volunteer from a welfare organisation, high inflation, accompanied with reduced purchasing power has led to a stark increase in the number of people found begging at various parts of the port city, including near the Lyari Expressway and the Hassan Square Flyover. “Earlier, you would find two or three odd beggars sitting around the flyovers and roundabouts, but now you can easily spot up to six or seven,” he said.

While skyrocketing inflation is one reason behind the rise in beggars across the city, high unemployment is another. As Farheen, a mother of two minor daughters, sitting outside a dairy shop, pointed out, “my husband does not have a job, therefore I have to feed my daughters by asking for help.” Upon being advised to look for paid work, Farheen scoffed at the idea saying that there were many philanthropists willing to happily aid poor women like her.

One such beggar is 55-year-old Madhu, who was found idling around a local market. “We spend eight months begging in Karachi, after which we return to our families in our village and live off the collected money for the remaining four months,” she shared.

While some families designate specific members for begging, others go about the city alongside their young children, who are unwittingly pulled into the profession. “Begging has almost become a family activity. You can spot groups of beggars moving around in markets, parks, and even near hotels and wedding halls,” commented Asif Shaukat, a religious welfare worker. “Even little children are found asking for money,” he added.

Shaukat’s observations were confirmed by a survey conducted by The Express Tribune into the purported occupation of many roadside spaces by groups of beggars, consisting mostly of children. Many young Afghan children, who were found gathering near the flyovers in Liaquatabad and at the University Road, have mastered a special performance to lure prospective philanthropists - while some fake a cry, others pull a subtle grimace.

Moreover, many of these children have duties assigned at various roadsides, and replace each other at regular intervals. Apart from children, adult men and women too, were found at the Lyari Expressway and were occupying spaces near the toll booths, but neither the motorway police nor the toll plaza staff seemed perturbed.

Waqar Mehdi, Advisor to CM said, “despite the police and local authorities regularly cracking down against these groups, the poor state of the economy means that many will still continue to occupy public spaces. However, we will try our best to curb the problem.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2023.