Is it very difficult to describe Dhaka? Dhaka is raw, hard, full of rubble and odor, and so much dirt. Bangladesh is beautiful, but the capital is uncomfortable. Dhaka was once known as the city of mosques, but now one can easily call it a city of beggars. Anywhere your car stops in the city, beggars are there to knock on the car window.
The growing number of beggars might give us the impression that this is perhaps the easiest way for many to earn bread and butter in this city. Beggars are a nuisance in Dhaka. At every road junction of Dhaka, you meet them day in and day out.
Starting from children to aging men and women, the beggars are there on the roads from early morning to midnight. Not only physically challenged people, but also physically fit women and children are seen on the streets begging.
The economic growth in many areas is quite visible through the infrastructural and industrial growth in the cities, but those can be overshadowed by the plight of the beggars of the metropolis. A nation may be poor, but does it mean that the number of beggars will rise everyday in the capital?
Begging – a long-term problem – deserves serious attention of the policy planners. Sensible approach is required to get rid of it, as it does not bring anything good to the society except disgrace.
Long ago, a weekly magazine had a cover story on Dhaka city beggars. It was a revealing story. It said if you think that unemployment and disability are the only factors propelling people towards begging, you are wrong. Many of the “able bodied” resort to begging, and some of the beggars are even rich.
Yet, they beg as no other profession could give them so much money. Metropolitan police, social welfare department, and other departments concerned have been promising for years that Dhaka beggars would be rehabilitated to ensure that the dwellers of the city are spared from the alms-seekers, who try out all their tricks to get what they want. But nothing was done about this so far.
It is not possible to know the specific number of beggars. Various reports say the number could be 700,000, and it is rising every single day. Jobless and homeless people from across the country often come to Dhaka to find work and finally end up begging on the streets. There are beggars who have been running this business for generation after generation.
Poverty is a severe problem, but the troubling part is that a vested syndicate is reportedly active in this trade. Though many people end up begging because of poverty, it has become a menace. Recently, begging has become a part of organised crime.
Police and RAB officials say syndicate members are adopting heinous strategies such as kidnapping children and making them disabled forever in order to force them to beg. According to law enforcers, thousands of beggars are being controlled by hundreds of unscrupulous influential people for begging in groups in different places of Dhaka.
The groups that trade in begging collect paralysed, blind, and disfigured children, men, and women, and deploy them to beg at public places on a salary or commission basis. There is also allegation of criminalising the beggars instead of rehabilitating them.
The question is how the metropolis can be cleared of these fortune-seeking beggars, as they are making the lives of the commuters difficult. Keeping the city roads free from beggars is a daunting task. We have seen crackdowns on beggars by the successive governments. In fact, they return shortly after such drives.
During the last ICC Cricket World Cup, the government took steps to remove beggars from the streets of Dhaka and Chittagong cities where the matches took place. The government allocated Tk12.5cr for conducting a survey on beggars and to draw a rehabilitation program on the basis of its report.
A good number of NGOs were selected to help implement the rehabilitation program of the beggars, which was also a pre-election pledge of the present government. After the cricket World Cup was over, the beggars in Dhaka and Chittagong cities again returned to the streets.
It is true that a permanent solution to the nagging problem of begging is not easy to find. But the government should try harder to find a solution for this problem. The capital city is like the face of a country. The face should not give a bad impression to foreign guests who are coming here for various purposes.
A comprehensive plan might solve the problem. The plan should include the private sector and NGOs to chalk out proper rehabilitation programs. Since beggars are not used to hard work, they might resort to begging again if a detailed plan is not drawn up.
Industrialists can come forward to help the government rehabilitate beggars by giving them jobs in their industrial units. If banning begging is not possible, then the government must seriously think of a plan to rehabilitate beggars in various shelters and old homes, and provide the able bodied ones with vocational and technical training.
The problem of begging needs to be addressed cohesively, involving sustained, long-term, and collective action. Political will, the efforts of local administrations, NGOs, and the public will – all are needed to achieve this target.
