Swarm of beggars invades city markets, food outlets in Ramazan

With the start of the holy month of Ramazan, the beggars of nearby districts have thronged the Peshawar’s markets to secure maximum alms and charities by adopting irritating techniques that were annoying the Aftar shoppers. Influx of unchecked professional and unprofessional beggars were seen in bazaars, food outlets, hotels, restaurants and shopping centers till late night by adopting different techniques in a bid to collect maximum alms and charity from people during Ramazan. Inspite of begging has been declared illegal under the country’s laws, the beggars’ influx including male, female, children and persons with disabilities were being witnessed in traffic crossing points, mosques’ gates and frequented public places in the city and cantonment areas mostly before Aftar. The historic Qissa Khwani bazaar, Hashtnagri, Gantagar, Firdus, Nothia, Tehkal, Gulbahar, Faqirabad, Karimpura, Saddar Road, University Town, Board bazaar and Hayatabad were flooded with the beggars these days. Most of the professional beggars employ various tricks to exploit human nature and religious sentiments by crying, weeping and chasing people in public places while wearing miserable attire. The unchecked trained beggars were pestering shoppers in the markets or running after them or behind their cars to collect maximum alms in the name of Zakat, Sadqa and Khairat. Sundas Bibi, a lecturer in Peshawar college told APP on Sunday that it was risky to down the window panes of vehicles especially at the traffic signals as beggars of all ages start knocking them consistently in a bid to enforce Rozadars to give something in charity. She said it was heartbreaking to see young girls and boys’ beggars carrying wipers in hands often start cleaning cars windows on traffic signals without permission in order to get money. She said some beggars roaming with exposed wounds keep on holding and touching customers when they come out of their vehicles, which could expose them to contiguous diseases and viral ailments including coronavirus, TB, flue and chest related infections. Sundas said some beggars were emotionally blackmailing people by carrying medical prescriptions and disability certificates. She urged the district administration to launch a crackdown against these migrated beggars because they had polluted the peaceful environment of the city. Qaisar Khan, a retired Govt employee and resident of Wapda Town Nowshera said that begging has been emerged as a major social evil in recent years to the nuisance of Peshawarties and created a lot of problems for Rozadars during shopping for Aftar. Besides bazaars and shopping arcades, he said Aftar shoppers were facing great inconvenience at food restaurants, markets, mosques’ gates and public places due to swarms of beggars these days in Peshawar. Alms’ seekers can also be seen in city markets asking for charity in the name of construction of mosques while many beggars were resorting to lame-duck excuses like seeking treatment of their ailing family or lost jobs. He said some beggars come with white caps and medical prescription to give an impression that they were selling it, but actually they beg for money without an intention of selling anything. “I was busy in Aftar shopping along with his family at Qissa Khwani where a teenage beggar with black colour in hand rushed towards me, asking for money or otherwise his clothes would be made dirty.” “In order to save my clothes, I immediately offered him Rs50, which was refused. On several requests, the beggar accepted Rs100 and started running towards other shoppers by using the same technique that was intolerable in a civilized society” he recalled. He said drugs addicts beggars in the city markets have irked Peshawarties due to their coughing and poor clothes. He demanded the KP government to take instantaneous action against swarms of beggars and drugs addicts in the city so that people could take a sigh of relief and do Aftar shopping with an ease. Former Additional Advocate General KP, Esa Khan told APP on Sunday that beggary has been declared illegal under West Pakistan Loitering Ordinance 1958. Unfortunately, he said this law had not been fully implemented, which resulted in an increase of beggars especially during Ramazan. He said central and provincial laws such as Control of Narcotics Substance Act 1997, West Pakistan Vagrancy Ordinance 1959, Pakistan Employment of Children Act 1991, KP Child Protection and Welfare Act (KPCPWA) 2010 and KP Orphanage Supervision and Control Act 1976 had been promulgated to check drug addiction and streets begging. Similarly, KPCPWA was enacted in 2010 to protect rights of women and children, but it has not been fully implemented on ground, resulting in swarms of beggars in Peshawar. Esa Khan said the role of Child Welfare Commission (CWC) was important to provide protection to child beggars in KP. He urged the KP Govt to impose a ban on child beggars on the pattern of Sindh province and direct the social welfare department to pick child beggars from markets, roads, traffic signals, streets and rehabilitate them at their welfare centres. Underscoring the need for launching special schemes for rehabilitation of beggars, Esa Khan urged people to donate alms and charity to their known poor deserving people and reputable charity organizations having clean service record so that their alms could be used for a noble cause. Social Welfare department’s spokesman told APP on Sunday that about 12 detoxification and rehabilitation centres have been setup for assistance and treatment of drugs addicts beggars. These centres were established in 12 districts including Swabi, Peshawar, DI Khan, Karak, Kohat, Malakand, Mardan, Charsadda, Swat, Nowsehra and Dir Lower. The free drugs Peshawar program’ has been launched to clear city of drugs addicts and professionals beggars and make them useful members of society. Under the campaign, he said drug addicts beggars including women were being shifted to rehabilitation centers while chronic addicts with health complexities to Islamabad for treatment. Directives to concerned authorities were issued to hold meetings with welfare organizations, industrialists and concerned departments to impart vocational training to all rehabilitated drug addicts. The addicts beggars were provided free night stay and meals at shelters homes and Darul Kafalas during recovery phases. Under BISP Program, he said that financial assistance was being provided to over 8.9 million poor people of the country including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa besides Rs2000 for each girl and Rs1500 for each boy to allievate poverty and counter illiteracy. The spokesman said that beggary was a social problem occured due to socioeconomic imbalances and collective efforts was required to eradicate this scourge in the country.