06/01/2026
From Begging to Belonging: Reframing Responsibility for Abandoned and Marginalised Children
By Shazia Kasi ASC
“They are begging.” This single sentence exposes not a moral failure of the child, but a structural failure of family, society, and the State. Children pushed into begging—whether transgender, gender-nonconforming, or otherwise abandoned—are not criminals or statistics; they are evidence of collective neglect. The impulse to demand DNA databases, identify fathers, enforce inheritance rights, and punish negligent parents reflects a deeper demand for accountability in a system that has long allowed abandonment to go unpunished.
Begging among minors is rarely a choice. It is the final outcome of rejection, poverty, and social exclusion. In many cases, children are pushed out of their homes due to gender nonconformity, disability, or extreme deprivation. Once on the streets, they are exposed to violence, exploitation, trafficking, and irreversible emotional damage. When society treats this as “fate” or “culture,” it normalises cruelty and erases responsibility.
The demand to trace parents—particularly fathers—is not about vengeance; it is about restoring legal and moral accountability. Parenthood is not merely biological, it is a legal obligation. When parents abandon minors, expose them to danger, or deny them care and identity, the harm is lifelong. Registering lawful inheritance is not charity—it is a constitutional right. Denying a child their property share due to stigma or abandonment compounds injustice with economic dispossession.
However, accountability must operate within the framework of human rights and due process. Blanket DNA databases raise serious concerns regarding privacy, misuse, and state overreach. The solution lies not in indiscriminate surveillance, but in targeted child-protection mechanisms, court-supervised parent tracing in abandonment cases, and enforceable maintenance and inheritance claims. Where neglect, abuse, or exploitation is proven, civil damages and criminal liability are not only justified—they are necessary deterrents.
Equally critical is the role of the State in prevention and rehabilitation. Punishment alone cannot repair emotional damage. Safe shelters, psychosocial support, education, and livelihood pathways must replace the streets as the default outcome for abandoned children. Society, too, must confront its hypocrisy: condemning begging while tolerating the structures that produce it.
Children begging on our streets are not a social inconvenience; they are a mirror. The question is not why they beg—but why those responsible were allowed to walk away.
