Pakistan’s beggars go global: A heartbreaking, homegrown issue 

In every bazaar, every city, village, town and motor crossing in Pakistan, beggary persists. Some old and sick, but most of them young children, holding something in hand to ‘sell’ while walking quickly through aisles of waiting cars. 

In Pakistan begging is unlawful under the Vagrancy Ordinance of 1958, under which beggars or parents of children begging can be jailed for up to three years. It seems nobody in the country cares about this Ordinance. According to a Dawn newspaper editorial of November 7, 2023, “Millions in Pakistan have resorted to begging as their sole source of income. Many have formed intricate networks that have gone beyond geographical boundaries.” 

In urban centers where begging is more lucrative, individual freelancing is not possible, as city centers and traffic crossings are controlled by an organized mafia-type system run by powerful bosses. My own investigations reveal that beggars have retainer lawyers who get them released from police custody for a monthly fee if they are ever arrested. Some of the beggars, other than the families begging in groups, are daily wagers who give all their collected sum to the bosses at the end of the day.

For months, high-ranking diplomats from various countries in the Gulf have highlighted that their prisons are overflowing with Pakistani beggars, and have pressed the government to do something about the bizarre phenomenon.

Rasul Bakhsh Rais

Apart from open and visible societal degradation, the beggars and mafias backing them have no regard for dignity. Begging is now a profession. In some regions, entire tribes and sub-castes have taken it as a trade, enriching themselves, and quite a number of them have become money-lenders. It’s often times a flourishing, international business, with Pakistani beggars making their way across the region, from Iran to Saudi Arabia. 

It is a new but not-so-new phenomenon that Pakistani beggars are boarding planes in groups to the Middle East, with Saudi Arabia topping the list, where they can exploit the pilgrim visa facility which doesn’t require stringent documentation like bank account statements, tax documents, professional income and property papers.

For months, high-ranking diplomats from various countries in the Gulf have highlighted that their prisons are overflowing with Pakistani beggars, and have pressed the Pakistani government to do something about the bizarre phenomenon. Last month, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) offloaded 16 beggars from a Saudi Arabia-bound flight at Multan airport. A week later, it took out eight more at the same airport-- all of them from the southern Punjab districts, which rank lowest on the social and economic development index. The off-loaded passengers told investigators they had paid Rs.185,000 – roughly $660 – to agents for getting their visas processed, while some have agreements with their facilitators to share 50 percent of their begging income to cover paying for the travel costs and for arranging visa documents. 

However, the primary responsibility for curbing the flow of beggars to foreign countries (and within) lies with the government of Pakistan, which has always been quite lax about beggary at home. Without strong and consistent policies, why would the beggar mafia give up on such a profitable business? Honor, shame, and social status are not incentives for other, more gainful employment in a society with painfully little opportunity, rampant systemic poverty and few legal barriers to stop them from making money through begging. 

Perhaps the fact that Pakistani beggars have gone global will lead to more international pressure and in turn to more national-level and mainstream conversations on the subject. Maybe then, this heartbreaking profession reserved mainly for exploited children will be addressed with the urgency it deserves. 

– Rasul Bakhsh Rais is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS, Lahore. His latest book is “Islam, Ethnicity and Power Politics: Constructing Pakistan’s National Identity” (Oxford University Press, 2017).
X: @RasulRais