KARACHI – Beggar girls are
found almost at every traffic signal and market places in the City, but what is
not usual this time is the apathy and not noticed the presence of young and
adolescent girls, and some of these beggar girls make themselves available.
They are part of a larger crowd of beggars belonging to every age. Of late,
their numbers have been on the rise, and they do not look conspicuous in the
larger crowd.
The Centre of Excellence for Women Studies, University of Karachi, has conducted
interviews with beggar girls at the 17 locations of the metropolis, where they
are visible in large numbers including Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Clifton, Landhi, Malir,
Saddar, Liaquatabad, Gulistan-e-Johar, FB Area, Sharah-e-Faisal, Mehmoodabad,
Jail Chowrangi, Bahadurabad, Tower, Garden, and Cantt Station. The statistics
told that 78 per cent of the beggar girls were 12 to 15 years of age, and the
next group was 9 to 11 years old while only 9 per cent said they were around 6
to 8 years old.
The largest number of beggar girls, 52 per cent identified cities and districts
of Sindh as their places of origin, and the largest group of 21 per cent claimed
locations in Punjab from where their families migrated to Karachi. Bangladeshi
girls were 9 per cent and 7 per cent from NWFP.
About 52per cent beggar girls said they were Muslims, and those who claimed to
be Hindu were 45 per cent while 3 per cent said they were Christians.
About 34 per cent beggar girls said they had been migrated to Karachi and
residing here for the last 6 years.
The mother tongue of the largest group of the beggar girls interviewed was
Sindhi 51 per cent, while Urdu 2 per cent, Bengali 10 per cent, Seraiki 12 per
cent, Pashto 8 per cent, Punjabi 8 per cent, and Balochi 8 per cent.
Majority of the 84 per cent of beggar girls belonged to nuclear families and the
other 16 per cent belonged to joint families. When asked how they started
begging as a mean of livelihood, 57 per cent said it were their parents and 10
per cent said that their grandfather started it.
The 17 per cent of the beggar girls said they had physical relationship
experience while 15 per cent of admitted it was by their consent, 2 per cent
said they went for it on the pretext of getting work. Another 3 per cent
disclosed that they were forced, two of them were insulted by their relatives
and one said her father sends her forcefully to customers.
Now, this is really a wake-up call for us. Pakistan an Islamic Republic is
actually turning out to be addicted land of Alcohol and Sex. We must be serious
in this matter , what is happening around us and we are having our eyes close.