CHITRAL: A powerful grassroots movement is sweeping across Pakistan’s major cities—Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Hyderabad, and much of Sindh—declaring an end to one of the most destructive habits of well-meaning citizens: handing out cash to beggars.
Social reformers, citizens, and overseas Pakistanis have united under a clear, uncompromising message: No more cash charity. From today onward, we offer food and water with compassion—but not a single rupee in cash, no exceptions.
This applies universally—whether the beggar is a woman, man, elderly person, disabled individual, or a child. The rule is absolute: kindness yes, cash no.
Why this hard line? Because professional begging in Pakistan is no longer (if it ever was) just about survival—it’s a multi-billion-rupee criminal industry. Reports estimate the begging economy extracts tens of billions of rupees annually, with Karachi alone seeing daily hauls in the thousands per beggar in prime spots. This is not charity; it’s a business model fueled directly by your cash.
Behind the outstretched hands often stand organized begging mafias—ruthless networks that:
- Abduct or traffic children
- Mutilate or deliberately disable kids to make them “more profitable”
- Exploit women and the elderly as fronts
- Assign territories, enforce quotas, and punish those who try to escape
- Traffic vulnerable people across cities and provinces for maximum earnings
Every time you drop money into a begging bowl or hand over notes at a traffic signal, you are inadvertently bankrolling child abduction, exploitation, and modern-day slavery. Your “kindness” keeps the mafia in business, perpetuates the cycle, and ensures tomorrow’s streets remain filled with the same tragic faces—many of them kidnapped minors forced into this life.
The solution is brutally simple and devastatingly effective: starve the system of cash. When the easy money dries up, the mafias lose their incentive. Handlers abandon posts. Networks collapse. Child trafficking for begging purposes drops sharply. Genuine need surfaces—and can be addressed through proper channels, NGOs, zakat committees, shelters, and rehabilitation programs instead of feeding criminal enterprises.
This is not cruelty; this is smart compassion. True help means breaking dependency and dismantling exploitation—not perpetuating it.
What we can do right now:
- Commit: Stop giving even one rupee to any beggar, anywhere, anytime.
- Prepare: Keep packets of biscuits, dates, water bottles, or small food items in your car, bag, or pocket. Offer those instead.
- Spread the word: Share this message relentlessly with family, friends, colleagues, and on social media. The more people join, the faster the mafias crumble.
- Redirect generosity: Channel your charity to verified organizations that rescue and rehabilitate victims, provide skills training, or support the truly destitute—not street-level cash drops that line criminal pockets.
Pakistan deserves streets free of organized begging. Our children deserve freedom from trafficking and mutilation. Our compassion deserves to reach real victims, not mafia bosses. .. CN report, 25 Jan 2026
One thought on “No Cash for Beggars – Movement against street beggary launched in Pakistan cities”
I fully subscribe to this idea and salute those who initiated the movement. As a matter of fact not even biscuits etc should be given to street beggars as they are ALL professionals who will sell the biscuits to shopkeepers and get cash. So the answer is to be strict and discourage all street beggars aggressively.