If you are living in Lahore, Karachi or any big city of Pakistan, you must have seen the beggar children with a broken arm or amputated legs or a bleeding organ at every traffic 
signal. During last 3-4 years, the number of such children and adults in every big city has increased alarmingly. They knock at the car windows and people generally give them money immediately just to avoid looking at them because they are in such a bad shape.
I have seen people just lying on a side of roads with both their legs and arms amputated and somehow they drag themselves around and we, the people from passing by cars, throw some coins at them. There are variety of cases, from severe burns to bleeding organs. I have even seen one young guy near Barkat Market, Lahore (near that famous fresh juice shop) with part of his skull fractured and I could actually see some part of his brain.
Sadly, everybody knows that organized gangs are behind these horrific crimes who have successfully established this highly profitable business. Yet we are least bothered about it. The level of indifference that exists in our society today which allows us to ignore this extreme height of human misery, to me, is the most striking aspect. The ease with which we have accepted this as a part of something ‘usual’ is equally shocking. This should have been considered crime against humanity; but it is now seen as ‘sad but routine.’
I have personally seen children of age 7-8 years and young men who were perfectly alright and then suddenly after a few weeks I saw them at traffic signals with their legs and arms amputated. It breaks my heart to see all this happening in front of our eyes and we are unable to prevent it. Last week, I decided to take photographs of such beggars around the Kalima Chowk area so that I could post them on ATP or elsewhere, hoping that someone would see them and decide to do atleast something about this issue. So I picked out one of the beggars and just when I was about to click, he looked at me and there was so much pain and suffering in his eyes that I couldn’t click the camera button. I felt like I was making fun of him and treating him like a caged animal which we show our kids in a zoo.
When I was a kid, I was taught never to give out money to beggars because they are professionals and blah blah. As I grew up and developed some sense of economics, I realized that until our society keeps on failing to fulfill its responsibility towards its less fortunate members, by not giving them money we only add to their suffering and make life more miserable for them. I once read somewhere that throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered the most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. Today’s Pakistan represents people in all three categories.
If over a million people in a country like Lebanon can peacefully demonstrate for their rights, why can’t we here in Pakistan? But sometimes when we try to do, we are treated like the young man in the Adil Bhai’s earlier post.
I wonder, therefore, are we really living in a dead society?
Darwaish, I really appreciate you bringing up this topic, though I have to disagree with you. Once I read your post, I had lots of things to write in response to this, but it became so long that I added it as a post on my own blog.
Apathetic society or a lucrative trade?
I think we really need to get a discussion going on such an important topic. Hope some good comes out of it.
PTV aired a brilliant play just on this topic. I forget the name but it featured Sohail Asghar (he had the famous line – “aik rupaa aik rupaa”), Abid Ali, Seemi Raheel, etc. In it Seemi’s son has his limbs amputated by Seemi’s own father. One of the great PTV plays…
I remember being kidnapped by these gangs used to be my biggest fear when I visited Pakistan as a child. Similar gangs operate in Saudi Arabia too. You see a lot people with amputations etc begging in Masjid-ul-Haram.
“The ease with which we have accepted this as a part of something ‘usual’ is equally shocking”.—-Darwaish
Friends: A while ago I wrote the following lines and posted at Shirazi’s site. These lines are worth repeating here. Our society is nothing but a reflection of ourselves.
About myself:
First few days of my visit to Pakistan I notice every beggar, handicapped, malnourished person on the street.
I notice the disparity between ’servant’ and ‘master’ classes in the houses of my friends and relatives.
I notice the very large piles of garbage along very broken roadsides, the very sick and poor masses just sitting around doing nothing.
I see people just looking to steal any thing they can.
I see my rich friends and relatives trying not to see any of this.
After few days of my stay, I become just like my friends.
I try not to see any of this. I do nothing.
I simply 72 hours before my departure date re-book my return flight and come back to the USA.
It does tug at your heart but you can’t tell who’s a genuine case and who’s the scam artist. I tend to contribute a lot to Edhi and TCF instead since there I’m pretty certain the money will be put to the right use.
Aah. Darwaish, I cannot but solemnly nod to your post. It is a question that I have asked myself so often. At this point the grim conclusion that we do live in an apathetic society. I also wonder if it is us who are the culprits or the system? We don’t take to the street to oppose the treatment handed out to Janju – incensed, we just shrug our shoulders and move on. The simple inclination to get up and register our protest against injustices and malpractices in our society is just not present. We exist in our own cocoons and don’t connect enough with the world outside to do anything serious to change it. And that includes you, me and every other youth in our country.
(Apologies for this uninvited rambling.)