With Ramazan comes a shower of blessings…and beggars

Karachi
Along the railway track under the Lilly Bridge, amid a dozen or more charpoys lining the road, the place is abuzz with several gypsy families.
They all are beggars – both seasonal and permanent – and the rail track divides them on a religious basis.
“The railway track divide the Muslim beggars from Sukkur district and the Hindu beggars from Sanghar district,” said Sanjay, 13, a member of a six-member Hindu beggar family that reached Karachi from Sanghar on the second day of Ramazan.
Sanjay said his family worked on an agricultural land in Sanghar but every year, his family arrived in Karachi for begging.
The permanent beggar families have preoccupied the space under the bridge. Therefore, Sanjay’s family is compelled to live under the open sky. “We will go back to our hometown on the second day of Eidul Fitr,” he said.
Seasonal beggars can be seen at the city’s bazaars, traffic signals, bus terminals, entrances of mosques and residential areas since the start of Ramazan, mostly in groups comprising women and children.
Most of them say that they have arrived from the rural areas of Sindh and southern Punjab and live under bridges, on roadsides, along railway tracks and the shrines of Sufi saints and in parks in Cantt Station, Kalapul, Gulistan-e-Johar, Super Highway, Quaidabad, Mawach Goth, Baloch Colony and other parts of the city.

Generosity encourages
Alms-giving increases during Ramazan when Muslims generously donate money in the forms of zakat, fitra and sadqa. Social activists say that Muslims’ generosity during Ramazan encourages the ‘begging mafia’ in the city.
Rana Asif Habib, a social activist who extensively works on the issue of beggary in the city, said these seasonal beggars took advantage of the Islamic traditions of donating money to help the needy.
“They come to the city for a month during Ramazan and earn a lot of money by begging,” said Habib.
“Now begging has transformed into a lucrative business and a strong mafia, with the support of police, manages the beggars in the city at public spots such as traffic signals in affluent areas including DHA and Clifton,” he maintained.
Beggars also create nuisances. Groups of women with crying infants and barefoot children can be seen at almost all markets in the city.
Shopkeepers and customers complain that beggars have made shopping difficult. Sometimes they grab shoppers’ arms to demand money.
“When someone refuses, they use offensive language,” said Abdul Rasheed, a shopkeeper in the Tariq Road area.
“People should give zakat and fitra to genuine charity organizations like the Edhi Foundation, instead of giving them to professional beggars,” he added.
“This is encouraging the begging mafia.”
A traffic officer at the Punjab Colony signal said his duty had become difficult because beggars were at the risk of being run over while they were at traffic signals asking drivers for money.

Action against beggars
Traders and activists have demanded that the government should launch a campaign against beggars during Ramazan.
Recently, provincial police chief Ghulam Qadir Thebo had ordered all zonal DIGs to start a crackdown against professional beggars in the city during Ramazan.
“The presence of beggars across the city poses a risk and can result in a security lapse if appropriate action is not taken,” said Thebo.
However, traders and activists have not seen any action against beggars on the ground.

Violating child rights
Child rights activists have expressed their concern about a recent surge in the number of children begging.
“This surge during Ramazan is evidence of organised begging cartels using children to make money during the holy month,” said Habib.
“It definitely violates the survival and development rights of children,” he added.
Child activists say extreme poverty sets the stage for such trends. Begging cartels, for a sum, offer to take children off needy families’ hands and take them to Karachi to collect as much donations as possible, especially during Ramazan.
“Begging rackets give a portion of the collected donations to the children,” explained Habib.
“Children are dropped off at the begging points early in the morning and then picked up at night.”