IN our society, beggars are those people who ‘do not’ earn, not the ones who ‘cannot’ earn. Begging is a profession and the beggars are members of a larger mafia. We must not forget the recent embarra-ssment when some of these professional beggars were found to be operating globally, and were caught in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

The question here arises: how do we actually identify the needy ones? Recently, I was on my way to university, and a teenage girl approached me and started passing comments. She told me how easy it was for us to ignore them. She pleaded that I should not ignore her, buy her something, and that I must have some mercy and compassion for the poor.

Can you imagine the level of utter emotional intimidation, manipulation and frustration a person feels while facing such manipulators? One gets numb while thinking about how to respond to such street bullies; whether one should be sympathetic to them, or ignore them.

Rajnee Vimla Rajkumar
Karachi

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2024