By Larbi Arbaoui
Taroudant, May 22, 2012
The drought that has befallen the
country the past several years successively has further impoverished an
already poor social strata. The people from rural regions who live
mainly on agriculture are the hardest hit by the implications of this
aridity. Having no resources, some of them left their little villages
and settled in slums, bus stations and in public squares. They prefer
begging than starving to death.
People with special needs are not
guaranteed social protection in our country. Both family and society
consider them a heavy burden they have to support reluctantly. They do
not receive adequate training which can enable them to be integrated in
the society and incorporate in the workforce positively. Thus they are
forced to beg. But they are not the only ones begging: some seem to do
it because it pays better than the jobs available to them.
“The best job I ever had was
panhandling” is a line from a comedian that contains a seed of truth.
Wherever you go, you’re harassed by beggars of all ages and sexes. Boys
and girls, young and old advance towards you with outstretched hands. It
evokes lachrymose feelings and sympathetic emotions to see such skinny
children, sometimes accompanied by their mothers, all in rags,
importuning every passerby for alms. They haunt the cafes, mosques,
buses and busy streets. Begging has become an annoying social
phenomenon. What explains the increasing numbers of beggars in our
country is still an enigmatic puzzle.
Being a beggar in Morocco is one of the
simplest things. Outstretching a hand miserably in any public space is
just enough to start receiving coins from people. But to be a successful
mendicant, a professional beggar – a beggar entrepreneur- one must
accrue experience and develop some tricks including cunning, market
savvy and learning by heart certain Qur’anic verses that help awaken the
religious compassionate feelings among people. Professed beggars have
memorised special prayers and know to use them for their favour in
particular moments, places and for different kinds of people. In some
regions begging is well-organised. For each area, there is an owner to
whom other beggars must pay the right of occupancy. Foreign beggars are
strictly denied access to such “private” places. Any attempts to violate
this invisible code may lead to serious complications.
The act of touching people for money is,
probably for all nations, a despised deed putting down people engaged
in such a debased occupation. Some people exercise mendacity as a habit
that they can’t stop because they have been grown up with it. Be it an
easy task –they believe- they can’t think of an alternative way that
will afford them a decent living away from the humiliating act of
outstretching hands before people. Another category found is those
begging for a meal ticket yet have a prosperous life. They have no
charges because everything is begged: food, clothes, transport and
money. However, there are people who are obliged to pray for their
living. Being even reluctant to beg, at the absence of the familial bond
and social care this category of beggars can’t be choosers.
Recorded figures can only indicate the
uncertainty of this increasingly threatening social anomaly. The lack of
an integrated strategy against begging through a comprehensive approach
based on prevention and social reintegration of persons engaged in
begging explains the increase of this social problem. It is up to the
government to seriously approach the issue. But, If wishes were horses,
then beggars would ride.
Originally published in Morocco World News
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