EID SPECIAL

English speaking beggars hit Rawalpindi markets

Sohail Rashid

Beggars are known for adopting different techniques to get sympathy of people. However this time around, they have come up with a unique method and child beggars are surprising the shoppers in markets with begging in English language.

These young beggars have not attended any English medium school. They are in fact 'trained performers' who can surprise you by asking for money in fluent English with its real accent. They have memorised attractive lines for different age group of people like asking a young man "Please give me ten rupees, God will give you a good wife" and urging a newly married couple "Help me, God will give you a beautiful son".

These child beggars mostly target well-to-do families coming for shopping in markets these days. These groups are quite active in Commercial Market and Saddar. Amazingly, they all speak the same lines in English, which depicts that they all belong to the same network. It also confirms that an organised network of beggars is using innocent children for achieving their purpose.

Talking to this news agency, a beggar girl, Misha (according to her), revealed that they have got proper training to speak a few lines of English from an instructor who was hired by their 'boss'. She said that a van gives them pick and drop facility daily.

"I have seen child beggars many times coming to the market in a Suzuki pickup. Their 'bosses' daily drop them in different parts of the city for begging," Saghir Khan, a shopper in Commercial Market, confirmed the facts revealed by young Misha.

These intelligent children, who are speaking English after getting a short training, could do much more if they are provided with proper education facility after getting them released from the clutches of the mafia.