Today is the first day of Ramazan and we are waiting for a well-dressed man to walk out of the building and start distributing ration, but it is nearly sunset and it has not happened yet,” said an elderly woman.
She was waiting outside a building, where last year a man had distributed ration among deserving people during Ramazan.
“The guards outside the building are not letting us enter the building so that we can meet that man,” the woman said. “I have arrived from Jhol [a tehsil of Sanghar district] along with my eight children to collect aid from the wealthy people of the city,” she said. “We do not disturb the busy people of the city, but only come here in Ramazan.”
Thousands of beggars like the elderly women arrived in the city with the advent of the holy month of Ramazan to collect charity from the rich of the city. They are living in makeshift camps along the city’s busiest roads.
These beggars come from far-flung areas of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab and stay in goths adjacent to the Super Highway, Surjani Town, Khuda ki Basti, Saeedabad, Mawach Goth, Jogi Mor, Dunba Goth, Jam Kunda and in katchi abadis near Cantt Station. However as soon as Ramazan moon is sighted, they set up along the main roads of the metropolis.
They prefer areas including Saddar, the Cantt Station, the Shahrah-e-Faisal, the MA Jinnah Road, the DHA and Clifton.
