2025

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Browsing 2025 by Author "Fatima Saghir"

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    Child begging in lahore
    (UMT Lahore, 2025) Fatima Saghir
    This paper examines how institutional and policy responses to child begging in Lahore sustain this social problem from a governance and policy standpoint. Child begging in Pakistan is a sign of more serious socioeconomic issues as well as structural shortcomings in the country's social policies and governance. From a moral perspective, the root causes of why families are compelled to beg are obscured. This research aims to explore the child begging phenomenon by looking into its inter-linkages and causes along with the experiences of child beggars and evaluating the efforts made so far to rehabilitate them. Here we have focused on more responsive solutions rather than accepting policies based on moral dimensions which often ignore the harsh social realities of poverty, marginalization and inequality. Using qualitative methods, we conducted 18 semi-structured interviews incorporating guardians of child beggars alongside representatives from private and public welfare sectors, non-governmental organizations, and government bodies. These diverse perspectives were all collected via purposive sampling techniques which greatly improved our understanding of the issue at hand. The results show that a significant number of child beggars come from families trapped in cycles of chronic poverty. Their begging behavior is both a means of survival and something they learn over time. Study participants provided some descriptions including forcing children to work, experiencing physical abuse, and being controlled by family members or other organized groups. Addressing this problem requires unsolved many factors using such methods as multiagency collaboration involving government bodies, non-governmental organizations, communities, and other relevant stakeholders aimed at providing coordinated action-focused strategic policies to address the underlying issues while supporting rehabilitation processes for affected children. This research proposes enhancing education systems coupled with strengthening social services along with genuine grassroots involvement towards ensuring protection and empowerment for vulnerable children in Lahore promotes greater social justice creating a protective framework responsive to their needs