Lahore’s busy intersections are favourite haunts for beggars who show up in all shapes and sizes. What’s more, they don’t fall into any particular age bracket: you’ll find minors as well as adults, young and old. You even find women holding infants in their arms, begging for alms. Mercifully, all this is likely to change — for good.

Punjab’s Home Department, in collaboration with Lahore Police, recently launched an aggressive crackdown against what the authorities called the “menace of organised beggary.” With new policies in place, and legal amendments coming into effect, mass arrests were made.

The provincial government claimed to have busted most networks of beggars whose presence tends to increase manifold during the holy month of Ramazan and around Eids. According to a report, titled Special Campaign Against Beggars, compiled by the Lahore Police, over 1,597 challans have been issued since January 1, and 1,502 individuals arrested. Of those arrested, 1,418 are men and 84 women. In addition, 11 persons allegedly working as facilitators have been taken into custody.

The drive has been particularly effective in certrain parts of Lahore. In Cantt and City Divisions each, 300-odd beggars were apprehended; while 181, 168, 163, and 226 people were arrested in Civil Lines, Saddar, Iqbal Town and Model Town divisions, respectively.

To accommodate the large number of beggars arrested, the government has set up special barracks in jails across the province. These barracks, designed to accommodate up to 10,000 beggars, have separate compounds for women and children. The move is part of the government’s strategy to rehabilitate beggars by providing them with vocational training and job opportunities.

In Lahore alone, at two prison houses, barracks have been allocated to a thousand beggars. The rest will be transferred to jails in Kasur, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur and Narowal.

The common perception is that crackdowns on beggars only temporarily reduce their visibility, and that the problem persists. After all, poverty, unemployment and lack of access to education and healthcare are known to push many people to beg, borrow or steal. Also, most ‘habitual’ beggars slip away to neighbouring districts or temporarily go into hiding every time such campaigns intensify.

Home Secretary Noor-ul Amin Mengal, who is spearheading the current programme, acknowledged these concerns and insisted that the government’s approach was going to be reformative. He said the time had come for the issue to be addressed comprehensively. Random arrests won’t do, he added.

Mengal was also reported as saying that the government had been working on revising the outdated Punjab Vagrancy Ordinance, 1958, making beggary a cognizable and non-bailable offence. According to him, the vagrancy laws had proved to be largely ineffective in combating those who exploit the vulnerable people, including children, for money. Mengal claimed that the amendments had been made to dismantle the organised rings of beggars.

According to Additional Secretary of Prisons Asim Raza, Punjab’s prisons treat all inmates equally, regardless of the nature of their crimes. In other words, once a person convicted of beggary lands in jail, they are a prisoner like the rest of the inmates and will be treated as per the Jail Manual.

Raza told The News on Sunday that jails were being transformed into industrial training centres. They offer a wide range of skills to the inmates. “Jails are shaping up as alternate industrial centres,” he said. “Training programnes are designed to equip the prisoners with marketable skills that can help them reintegrate into the society. The skills being taught include hairstyling, tile-making, manufacturing footballs, socks, soaps and energy-efficient light bulbs.”

Raza added, “The initiative is a step towards prison reforms. It will ensure that the inmates are given a second chance at life.”

He also said that beggars along with other inmates were provided with three meals a day. “The meals are of better quality than what some lower middle class households can afford.

“Besides, each prison house has a designated hospital, with doctors and psychologists on board, and in-house facilities such as X-ray machines and a steady supply of medicines. Sanitation services, barber shops and libraries that are stocked with self-help books, are also being introduced in an effort to humanise the prison environment.”

Surveillance is another part of the jail reforms. Budgeted at Rs 4 billion, the project includes installation of CCTV cameras in jails, body cameras for staff and security scanners at key locations within the prison house that will allow for real-time monitoring of food preparation, living conditions and prisoners’ interactions.

“This will also minimise the risk of abuse or negligence,” Raza added.

Mengal pointed out that the anti-beggary campaign was accompanied by hefty funding for vocational training, social welfare initiatives and mental health services, ensuring that those who genuinely want to escape the cycle of beggary would have the support to do so. “The real success of this initiative will be measured not by how many beggars we arrest, but by how many we are able to rehabilitate,” he said.

Ahsan Malik is a media veteran interested in politics, consumer rights and entrepreneurship