Following on from my brief allusion (here) to camel jockeys - that are enslaved to satisfy the barbaric sporting habits of the rulers of the Middle East, this post concerns another type of slavery- beggary- that is rampant in Pakistan. It also contains a video report on the plight of ‘rat children’ or ‘ chuwas’ [aired by Channel 4 UK].
If you have been on the road of any major city in Pakistan (except Islamabad, from what I can remember) you would have come across hoards of children aged from nearly nothing being exploited for beggary. In the soaring heat of the summer or the chilly nights of the winter they stand at traffic junctions, some being carried by their ‘beggar mothers’ [most likely sold to ‘beggar masters’ by their biological parents or even kidnapped].
The treatment that is meted out to these children is beyond acceptable. Even though they are nothing but slaves, their treatment is worse than that afforded to the slaves centuries ago. Infants are drugged to keep them docile in the arms of the beggar mothers, at a later age the beggar masters cut their limbs off and as they grow even older they become part of the beggar mafia. Most cannot do anything about it because most have been made mentally and physically incapable of doing anything else. But who is to blame for this situation?
There is no doubt that the people that control these beggar mafias bear part of the blame but part (and I think a major part) has to be borne by society that continues to feed the demand for beggars. It is a primarily sub-continental (I doubt that it’s religious) belief that a person can earn spiritual merit by giving alms to these beggars. In addition, we Pakistanis are highly emotional people; the slightest of emotional blackmail and we are ready to give in. This ‘demand’ driven beggary was aptly described by an observation made by Sauvik Chakraverti concerning beggary in India:
“The phenomenon of widespread beggary in India is best understood by looking at an example from nature. The road between Roorkee and Dehradoon [in Uttarakhand State, India] passes through a thick forest. I often drive down this road and never fail to notice that, at various points along the way, thousands of monkeys hang around waiting for the scraps of food that Hanuman worshippers throw at them. Does this prove that the forest is poor and resourceless? Or does this illustrate the role of incentives – what psychologists call ‘positive reinforcement’. The monkeys have discovered that hanging around by the road is a cool way of getting food. Similarly with beggars. Because civil society gives alms generously, many have found out that beggary is an easy mode of existence. These beggars do not prove that India is poor. Rather, these beggars prove that Indian civil society is generous: indeed, overly generous.” The same can be said about Pakistani civil society.
An even worse example of society exploiting children is when they are born handicapped. The ‘chuwas’ or ‘rat children’ are ‘microcephalics’ [Greek for ‘small headed person’] that are born with a deformity in that their heads are disproportionately small. Legend dictates their popularity as ‘saints’ that are capable of communication with God that we are incapable of. The report below does well to cover the plight of these children and there is little more that I can add except this: You might have come across microcephalic stories stating that these children are made physically deformed by putting their head in metal rings that essentially stops the physical growth of the child’s head. It is doubtful that this is the case since it is almost certainly medically impossible. The brain of a child grows for the first nine years and the skull has gaps in order to accommodate for this growth. However, in cases where such a gap is sealed [as would be the case with the metal rings] the result would not be microcephaly but death because the brain would be forced through the hole at the bottom of the skull, thus, compromising the spinal cord.
On 25th March 2006, some parts of the world celebrated the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slave trade. However, in Pakistan slavery and the trade of slave children is as rampant as ever. It would absolve us of blame by holding the government or even poverty responsible for beggary but this is at least one area where we as Pakistanis have to bear direct responsibility. Whether it is by stopping the uneducated parents from selling their children or stopping people from opening their wallets to the beggar mafias, it is not beyond our control to stop this crime against humanity.
[googlevideo]2781092984163412790[/googlevideo]
I must admit that before today I also believed in the myth that the heads of these children were placed in metal rings. It just seemed to make sense as the only time I’d ever seen such children was on the streets as beggars.
You state that it is a subcontinental belief that people can gain spiritual merit by giving alms to the poor and not necessarily a religious one. I feel that in Pakistan it is definitely connected with religion. People think that they’ve fulfilled a religious duty by giving money to the poor. I say this because people all over the world give money to the poor; it is not just a subcontinental phenomenon. However, there is a major difference in almsgiving in the West.
In the West people have strengthended the institution of charity through institutionalised philanthropy. What this means is that they give money through institutions that are already on the ground to distribute that money in the best possible way for a particular purpose.
In Pakistan we get emotionally blackmailed by beggars, give the money, and think that God will be happy that we gave the money even though we know fully well that there are beggar mafias in operation. Even if you look at it religiously God would like one to distribute the money that he has given us responsibly. Pakistani’s are a very generous nation, but we must focus our generosity.
We spend money to feed a beggar once, twice, thrice or more. But in the West, through philanthropy, they ensure that the person would never need to ask anyone for a single penny to feed themselves. Examples of well-known Western philansthropists are Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and George Sores. These men have or plan to give away their entire fortunes to charity and just like every other thing that they’ve done in life, they will make sure that they do a complete job. A job that serves a purpose and makes a difference.
Hakim, you’re right- giving money to the poor is not only a sub-continental phenomenon. However, I think, even though there is a sign of organized philanthropy through the most obvious of examples, Edhi, there is a stronger distinction that needs to be drawn in the case of Pakistan. That distinction is between the deserving ‘poor’ and the non-deserving ‘beggars’. Even though in saying so I am treading on a very thin line, I think this is a very valid distinction. The fact is that by not drawing that distinction we feel absolved of our religious duty to help the poor [beggary has never been supported in Islam] by giving to beggars rather than actually making the effort to find a person deserving of financial help. Further, by turning a blind eye to these facts we are promoting laziness rather than hard work in our society.