Beggar-free Dhaka still a utopia

A Dhaka city free from 'nuisance' of beggars is not a myth! Visibly invisible, the concept lives in political rhetoric and sometimes on paper, in a country where one-fourth of the population is statistically called poor.

Only on 9 May, state minister for social welfare Nuruzzaman Ahmed told parliament that three zones of Dhaka city were made free of beggars.

The zones are: Zone-I: Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport and Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel, zone-II: diplomatic zone, and zone III: Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel, InterContinental Dhaka and Bailey Road.

Beggars, however, are often seen everywhere in these three zones. In most places, the beggars do not even know that begging is banned there.

Abu Bakkar from Pabna begs for money in front of Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel. He came to Dhaka around two months ago targeting Shab-e-Barat and the fasting month of Ramadan.

The 70-year-old man, who earns around Tk 500 to 700 every day in this capital, does not know that he cannot beg money in the three zones.

“No one told me about that,” Abu Bakkar said with a puzzled look. “I roam around begging from Panthapath to Shahbagh. No policemen or security guards disturb me while begging,” he added.

According to the social welfare ministry’s data, there are around 100,000 beggars in Dhaka city.

A member of Bangladesh Ansar, Shamim Sardar, has been working as a security officer for InterContinental Dhaka hotel for the past five months.

“We work here in front of the hotel round the clock. Beggars can easily be seen here and in front of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and BIRDEM.’’

Asked if he knew that the area has been declared beggar-free, Shamim shook his head in the negative.

“I don’t know about this, nor even have I seen any police driving beggars away from in front of the hotel,” he said.

Seen in front of SAARC Fountain signal, Zarina Begum was sitting on the pavement with her two-year old daughter, Andhari. Asked if she knows that the footpath where she is begging has been declared beggar-free, she replied she is not a beggar, rather she is a street vendor and sells cigarettes on foot.

“I’m not a beggar. I have sold all my cigarette packs today and now I’m just sitting idly beside the road. But, I don’t mind if anyone helps me financially,’’ she said.

Just a few yards away, a limping Tofazzal Hossain was leaning on a crutch and begging. Tofazzal, who lost one of his legs in a train accident, is from Rangpur but now lives in an Azimpur slum.

His three sons are rickshaw pullers and auto-rickshaw drivers. He also has two daughters.

“After much difficulty, I could marry off my daughters. My sons are not well established enough to support us. And this is why I have been begging.’’

When asked if he knows this area has been declared beggar-free, “I know begging for money is legal in Dhaka city. There is no bar. No one has told me anything about this.”

Begging, however, is a punishable offence according to existing laws of the country. The minimum punishment for begging is three years in prison and the maximum is seven years, to be doubled for a repetition.

Mahfuz (pseudonym), a police constable, attached with Bangladesh Police Lines, deployed in front of Sonargaon hotel, told Prothom Alo, “I don’t know if this place has been declared beggar-free. We often see beggars signalling cars for money. We have not been instructed to look after this. Our duty is to keep the footpath moving so that no one can stand still in front of the hotel.”

Only a few metres away, a beggar couple started knocking on the car windows, especially to the expensive cars.

One of them is blind.

When approached with the same question, they gave Prothom Alo the same reply, “We don’t know that we can’t beg here.”

A pedestrian, Hassan Zakaria, said that there was a billboard reading, ‘beggar-free area’ on the island just in front of the Sonargaon hotel. “But, it has been removed a few months ago,” he added.

A lame man was found begging for money on the Gulshan Lake Bridge near Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Dhaka on Friday. His name is Mostafa.

When approached, Mostafa said he is begging for money with the fear of being evicted as policemen often drive them away from the diplomatic zones in the capital. Despite the fact, he was begging there as both locals and foreigners have a tendency to donate money here.

“I know this place has been declared beggar-free as police evicted me twice. Despite that, I sit here to beg as I can earn more here,’’

A housewife who lives in Gulshan-2 told Prothom Alo, “Beggars here in posh areas are very smart. Sometimes, they ask for money, especially dollars, from foreigners in English. And sometimes, they will come to your car window and say that they left begging and have become street vendors. And so, you must help them financially. Isn’t this begging too?” 

In spite of beggars’ presence in all three ‘beggar-free zones’, ruling party leaders and ministers talk tall of having beggar-free Dhaka, and sometimes beggar-free Bangladesh. 

State minister Nuruzzaman Ahmed said that the country would have no beggars by 2018 as the prime minister announced that beggars would be rehabilitated and job opportunities would be created for them.

On 17 March, prime minister Sheikh Hasina mentioned that necessary measures had been taken to make every district free from beggars.

Just a few days later on 29 March, finance minister AMA Muhith told a programme, “Begging will completely be rooted out once the Sheikh Hasina-led government comes back to power.”

Earlier in mid 2013, the government said it had decided to clear beggars from some locations in the capital including Shahjalal International Airport area, Bailey Road, the diplomatic zone and places surrounding the embassies, and the Sonargaon, Ruposhi Bangla and Radisson hotels.

The government took a number of projects to rehabilitate the beggars but these do not seem to have been so successful.

According to social welfare ministry officials, the government’s experience of rehabilitating beggars is not pleasant as the beggars simply return to begging just a few months after being rehabilitated.

And so, the vision of a beggar-free Dhaka remains a distant dream.