Punjab has moved to tighten the noose around those who turn childhood into a begging business. On Tuesday, the provincial assembly’s Home Affairs Committee unanimously approved amendments to the vagrancy law, raising the protected age from 14 to 16 and proposing imprisonment of up to three years, alongside fines reaching Rs300,000, for parents and guardians who exploit children for begging or allow others to do so. The move deserves appreciation, particularly for recognising that children forced onto the streets require protection rather than punishment.
Punjab registered 2,693 child-begging cases during the first six months of 2025. Not one conviction was recorded in that period, while 2,669 cases remained under trial. The provincial government’s resolve to strengthen child protection is welcome, although the prosecution figures suggest that tougher penalties must go hand in hand with better investigations and timely disposal of cases.
Furthermore, the Punjab Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey for 2023-24 also found 8.5 per cent of children aged five to 17 engaged in child labour. Among rural children, the proportion rose to 10.8 per cent. Meanwhile, UNICEF estimates that 25.1 million Pakistani children aged five to 16 are out of school. These are hardly unrelated statistics, as children deprived of education and pushed into premature employment become easy prey for exploiters promising money or protection.
The United States’ 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report documented how organised criminal groups force homeless Pakistani children to beg, steal and sometimes suffer deliberate physical harm to attract greater sympathy. Such rackets deserve the full force of the law. The proposed legislation’s emphasis on parental responsibility could also help prevent children from being handed over to exploiters. Care must, nevertheless, be taken to distinguish deliberate complicity from circumstances in which desperately poor families lack the means to protect their children.
Encouragingly, Punjab already has institutions working towards rehabilitation. Rawalpindi’s Child Protection Bureau reported taking 1,209 children into protective custody during 2025, reuniting 363 missing or runaway children with their families and providing counselling, education or training to 1,963 children. The proposed database and coordinated rehabilitation mechanism could build upon such efforts, helping authorities monitor children’s return to education and protect them against repeated exploitation.
Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s administration has an opportunity to build on its child-protection initiatives through stronger enforcement and sustained rehabilitation. A child standing barefoot at a traffic signal needs protection from those who exploit that misery, not punishment for having been born into it.
