Beggars can be rounded up but hardly rehabilitated

The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) could not be more abrasive in its treatment of beggars. According to a report carried in a Bangla contemporary, it has rounded up as many as 167 beggars from Gulshan, Banani, Tajgaon, Natun Bazar and Mirpur in its drive on Tuesday and Wednesday. Ramadan is the month, particularly the time stretching from the second week to the third, is marked by begging bonanza. Throughout the month people become extra generous to dispose with alms but the middle weeks are the peak time when beggars ---both residential and seasonal ---count on hefty income like traders. The last week sees an exodus of home-bound people from the capital, leaving it nearly empty.

So, beggars post themselves at strategic positions---before super shops, shopping malls, on foot-over bridges or approach roads on both sides of those bridges, footpaths, in front of hospitals, railway stations, at bus stops and, of course, kitchen markets. Some smarter ones target busy points where people get down from rickshaws to catch other modes of transport or even a particularly lucrative segments before road crossings or traffic signals. They are the roving beggars. There is a fierce competition for establishing rights of possession of certain spots among both stationary and roving beggars. A fight between two such mendicants once became viral on social sites.

The issue here is the choice of time by the DNCC. At a time when alms seekers count on the maximum possible proceedings from their profession, the DNCC has spoiled the party. Clearly, the authorities of north Dhaka have upset the plan and calculations of 167 beggars who were hauled up for sending to rehabilitation centres. If the drive continues, more beggars will get caught. After all, the areas where the DNCC drive has been conducted so far is large zone of north Dhaka, no doubt, but there are still more areas under its jurisdiction to cover. Mohammadpur is more or less a beggars' haven. Shopping malls have come up in an increasing number and there are a number of large and popular kitchen markets where customers from other localities also come for shopping.

These bazaars and shopping malls as well as areas around the super stores are literally replete with beggars. Before anyone can even open up his or her wallet or purse for paying for the purchase, a number of palms jut out from left and right as if magically. Sometimes the begging hands are so insisting that they would not hesitate to draw your attention by pulling your shirt or touching hands. With the tug sideways or from behind, you turn around to see no friendly face but, maybe, an old woman with wrinkled faces looking at you innocently. What do you do in such a situation. If you are a short-tempered person and have dermatographia, chances are that you may overreact but if you are a person of mild bearing, you will dispense with some money despite the irritation you feel. The problem here, though, is the number of alms seekers who flock around you when you have met one's demand.

In the month of Ramadan, usually no one reacts sharply. One tries to give alms to as many beggars as possible. This is why, the DNCC drive will be vehemently resented by the beggars who have been rounded up for their rehabilitation in shelters specially built for them. Now the question is, why beggars are unwilling to stay in such accommodations. Many of these beggars have their families in the city or in villages where members of those families depend on their incomes. That the majority of beggars earn more than a day labourer or even a rickshaw-puller is perhaps not known to many. If beggars get confined with the four walls of rehabilitation centres, their families suffer for want of money they receive from them.

A case history of each beggar is different but those of some are likely to be stranger than fiction. One example can be cited here. A beggar who used to pretend to be a dumb person for begging in running buses earned between Tk 1,000-1,200. He used to come to a grocery every morning, unless of course he was ill, to exchange his coins for currency notes of Tk 500 or Tk1,000. That was 12-15 years back. What is, therefore, needed is to collect each beggar's case history before sending them to rehabilitation centres. If their entire families can be accommodated there, they will possibly not run away, as they do now, from those shelters. Even the pretentious among them stands the chance of reforming if only their special problems are addressed in a humanitarian manner. Sure enough, their skill development and their children's education will be a deciding factor for their rehabilitation.