Child begging is not a new trend in the capital as it has been going on for years. And now it has probably reached the height of inhumanity.

It is a common scenario in the capital that whenever you go out you will be inevitably approached by children begging on the street. This inhuman practice has taken a new turn – children are left over a piece of cloth for begging in the middle of the footpath or street putting the life of the naive children in jeopardy and causing abrupt hassle to the pedestrians as well.

A syndicate of begging mafias is active in the capital who is exploiting ‘marginalised infants’ to make a quick buck crossing all limits with utmost apathy. This situation can be judged from two perspectives. Firstly, a group of greedy filthy people are endangering the infants’ lives as slight unmindful attitude from the part of the passers-by can severely injure the toddler lying on the street. Secondly, cross-sections of people making their way through the street are emotionally cajoled into taking money out of their wallet.

Well, if we think beyond what is apparent, we get to know that there is much more to this cruelty. Often babies are abducted for the begging business by a gang operating all over the country and these babies are rented to adult beggars on a daily basis from cartels. These infants are drugged and given doses of sleeping tablets and narcotic substance by adult beggars so that they appear to be sleeping and then they are left on the streets making them more vulnerable to wounds and injuries. Taking the advantage of such pitiable situation a syndicate of beggars makes money capitalising on people’s sentiments.

However while many people cannot but give money to these children, many are also there who feel extremely vexed by the whole idea of using babies as beggars. Mizan Rahman, a service holder who regularly walks past someone begging on the street in the Uttara area, shared to this writer, “I am not against begging but I feel really disturbed when I see an infant is being used as a begging toll.”

Robaet Ferdous, a social thinker and Professor, Department of Mass Communication & Journalism, Dhaka University, said, “The phenomenon of begging by infants clearly points to our collective failure as a society. A syndicate is controlling this racket very tactfully and many powerful people are involved in it. But it is the responsibility of the state to save these children from the clutch of begging mafia and it is mentionable that the state has utterly failed to do so. If we want to develop a society based on compassionate feelings, we will have to bring an end to such inhuman practice.”

(The writer is a columnist.)