Beggars spread across society like a contagious illness. Professional beggars overrun every street, signal, and market. They expertly strike their mark and cunningly bring in the desired cash. They break the harmony and stow people in vex. It is like the Business, and beggars are brutally honest with their profession. In beggars’ empire, to keep an eye on their organizational and employee activities, they have monitoring staff for bookkeeping of daily income. They endowment to several havoc ventures, including prostitution, buying and selling human organs, cutting children’s hands and feet, trafficking narcotic supplies, and abduction. They inject the venom of drugs into our young generation.
Fakir, Gadagir, or Gadagar, they have different names. But they come into your life suddenly for a few moments and leave a very big question mark: whether you should have helped them or not. Now the question is, how do these beggars become beggars? Extreme poverty, mafia systems, disability or health issues, refuge, addiction, and charity organizations, not all of them, but some of them.
There are such people whom we give money to, but where do they go? Nobody knows about it. In Pakistan, a laborer is earning a daily wage of around Rs. 1500. If he is earning Rs. 1000 to Rs. 3000, and even on weekends he is earning around Rs. 5000 or more, then whose fault is it? The beggars’ or ours? Or are they really deserving people?
You will not find this creature on empty streets. In fact, you will find it on busy streets, at signals, in smiling places, shopping malls, outside mosques, temples, and such places where people come and go a lot.
In addition, the beggar is an abhorrent burden on society. People now value begging because it is smooth and non-demanding, starting with zero investment. Begging is a curse and may vanquish self-esteem. How do we get rid of this curse? How do we restore the balance? Because a beggar is a real threat to self-respect. Government and non-government organizations need to take serious initiatives to keep the nation apart from this incurable disease. Punish all the culprits and restore the balance.
Begging is not only about poverty; it is about the system that silently allows it to grow. When people continue giving money without thinking, and when authorities ignore the organized networks behind it, this curse keeps spreading in society. True help is not encouraging begging but creating opportunities for dignity and honest work. Society must realize that compassion should not turn into support for exploitation. Only when people, government, and organizations work together to break this cycle can we restore balance, protect human dignity, and build a society where no one has to choose begging as a way of life.
Indeed, Real beggars also exist in society, and their stories are often hidden behind the crowd of professional beggars. Some people are forced into begging because of extreme poverty, disability, old age, or the loss of family support. These individuals are not part of any organized system; they are simply victims of harsh circumstances. A disabled person sitting quietly on the roadside, an old woman outside a mosque or a refugee who has lost everything may have no other way to survive. For them, begging is not a profession but a desperate attempt to stay alive. Ignoring such people completely would mean ignoring humanity itself. Therefore, society must learn to distinguish between organized begging networks and truly needy individuals so that compassion reaches the right hands.
Fizza Qaisar is a journalist who writes about social issues and human struggles.
