Situational
Analysis
Problem
identification is a deductive process. This activity identifies the issues and
problems that need to be addressed. It seeks to answer several questions.
Choose
one social problem and prepare a detailed situation analysis on it. Your
analysis should be based on following dimensions.
– What is the problem?
– What are the probable causes of the
problem?
– How serious (acute) is the problem?
What are its social effects?
– Who are affected by the problem?
– How many are they?
– Where are they located?
– What are their characteristics?
– What has been done to solve the
problem?
– What are the recommendations for
future course of action?
Begging is one of
important growing issues of Pakistan which has not been taken into account
seriously. This essay deals with the situation analysis of begging in different
areas of Pakistan. I choose this topic because it is one of the growing issues
giving birth to different main issues like street crime, theft, robbery,
suppression of poor, violence and exploitation. Pakistan is facing street
begging at an alarming ratio.
Begging is requesting for donation in a supplicating manner, also it is one of
the oldest professions on earth like prostitution but other nations have taken
some serious actions to reduce it whereas in Pakistan this trend of begging
increasing day by day. According to research, beggary is an organized crime in
Pakistan and according to contemporary estimates, there are somewhere between
two and twenty-five million beggars in Pakistan .There are number of causes of
begging which indulged people to beg. Horn ad cooke analyzes the begging
behavior and say that begging is an income supplement necessary for survival at
some level related to the basic necessities like food or drugs. This is complex
relationship between poverty, begging, homelessness, substance abuse, mental
illness, unemployment and crime. Horn and cooke conclude that all these factors
somehow resulted in begging so that they can generate income for survival (Horn, 1998)
Begging is so common is
all major cities and almost found on every roundabout, pavement, in front of
mosque and main roads asking for alms. It has become profession with a larger
industry. Begging is prevailing also because of our societal setup. Two things
that drive this industry are ‘shock value’ and religious connotations of assistance.
In our society begging has traditionally been tolerated and even encouraged
because that people give them money to gain religious merits and earn sawab but
we have forgotten that these people are professionals and living idly is a sole
purpose of their lives. Hassan Shahid, a development economist,
pointed out that, “In Pakistan, and in other South Asian Countries, people have
the tendency to provide alms or charity to poor people. Due to such trend, begging has become quite
rampant because a section of people are more than happy to give money to
beggars, particularly children.” However he also mentions that it occurs because
state doesn’t have enough resources to provide substantial to poor and needy.
This situation of them let them beg to fulfill their survival needs (Murtaza,
2012)
Poverty is the major
cause of begging which has force hundreds of people to commit suicide,
compelled women to sell out their children and forced youngsters to leave their
home and start begging. According to the latest survey, large number of people
living below the poverty line earning less than Rs.4000 per month which makes
it very difficult for a person to fulfill his needs. On the other side, a
street beggar is earning more than a normal person and also it’s an easy source
of earning money (Haroon, 2012). They claim that
they have to pay an amount to the ring leaders or police in the areas to beg.
According to Pakistan law, begging can get you in jail for three years. But,
that rarely happens here according to lawyers. Also Parents whose children are
found begging can be arrested and put in jail for three years. They can be
fined $500. The Lahore High Court in the year 2011 gave a ruling that
professional beggary should be discouraged.
Beggars are mostly
found in main urban cities ad main areas of these cities. They run markets of
beggary in every city called mandi where they gathered around from all over the
cities when there is Urs, mela like in Bari Iman, Data Darbar etc. As it is
organized crime, they do deals in that mandi and assigned their tasks and areas
where they beg. (Khan F. S., 2012)
Begging culture is not
as simple as it seems like, now there is a whole mafia and series of crimes is
also related to it. They even deceive innocent women and rob them. Also
children beggars are mostly those who were kidnapped first by this mafia, and
then converted into horrific appearance or disabilities which can be convenient
tool for extorting money whatever they can. Even though begging is illegal in
Pakistan, according to West Pakistan Vagrancy Ordinance 1958, but this law
remains principally unforced as a massive increase in the number of beggars
since past decades. According to Child Protection and Welfare
Bureau, 39,270 poor and neglected children have been facilitated by the Bureau
in six years. No doubt the professional beggars here in Pakistan are begging
with their own choice and they are the real culprits but child beggars in the
city are not choosers and they beg involuntarily. According to Asian Human
Rights commission (AHRC) research in Pakistan, there are 1.2 million children o
the streets on Pakistan’s major cities and urban center. This is only the
amount of children in begging, other than children there are number of beggars
who are mostly disabled or pretend to be disable person. Their lives are being
controlled by huge network of beggar mafia who also allots them their territory
where they have to beg. They are being trained professionally and tortured
inhumanly that if someone just asks about their network or masters, they get
scared to death.
These mafia leaders actually take oath from them to keep their
name secret because majority of their heads are well known and influential
persons of the society (Khan, 2006)
Iftikhar Mubarak, a
child rights activist who is associated with the Society for the Protection of
the Rights of the Child (SPARC) and SAHIL, said: “Children don’t run away just
because their families are poor, many of them are physically abused. Many
children run away because they witness violence in their homes. NGOs can do
only so much, long term sustainability of such interventions depends on the
government’s help.” Beggary is no doubt outcome of poverty. Haroon Memorial
Welfare researches about different beggars.
Average daily wedges ranges from Rs.400 t0 Rs.500 which they handed over
to their masters. Most of these beggars were children who did not even wearing
proper cloths and shoes.
In short begging is
influencing large number of people in our societies, not only beggars but also
who get affected by this beggarization related crimes. This create poor image
of the society and the begging mafia is just getting stronger day by day
because no one has taken this issue seriously, neither law and enforcement agencies,
government and NGOs are doing anything which just focuses on begging. There are
some measurements that could be taken to reduce begging.
·
Zakat and Sadqa are two important
obligations which should be accessible to poor and needy people. The system of
zakat should be transparent and it’s our responsibility to ensure eligibility
of a receiver.
·
Government should take some initiatives
like to arrange different workshops, training and skills program so that they
can really earn their future living.
· Job opportunities should be provided to
the eligible people who really have skills and training.
·
There should be strict enforcement of
law, police should have power to punish those who are responsible for bring
them on streets.
·
Especially children rights should be
ensured ad establish institution mechanism for child protecting issues.
·
Public should discourage this illegal
begging instead of encouraging it. There should be awareness programs against
this begging mafia, so that only deserving people could get aid.
·
Above few points could be achieved
through awareness campaign of electronic and social media which has great
influence on our lives.
·
Government should generate funds to deal
with vagrancy, beggary ad exploitation which is caused by begging.
Begging is now one of
the organized crime and it need to be eliminated by serious policy formulation
and planning. It needs to be eliminated from the society because it is
producing a dependent person which is something dangerous for development and
progress of a country as it assists in different crimes.
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