"If you can walk, you can beg” is what a local religion leader, called a Marabout, said to a sick Talibe child who did not feel well enough spend the day begging in the hot sun. "Talibe" literally means "follower" and the word is used locally to refer to orphaned children sent to live and learn in religious schools called Daaras. Many children receive an education in this system and are well cared for, but increasingly others are exploited and forced to beg all day, for 8 to 10 hours, their income turned over to their religious leaders. These children are given quotas to earn, usually $1 a day in order to get fed and be allowed to stop, and there are so many children in this situation that they are estimated to earn over $15 million per year from begging. 

Living in Senegal, I am constantly disturbed by the plight of these children. Wherever one goes there are little boys, often as young as 4 or 5, clutching big tomato cans or yellow bowls they use to collect coins, and asking for money and food. They are dressed in tatters, usually barefoot, often covered in sores. Human Rights Watch estimates that 50,000 children are forced to beg and subjected to “conditions akin to slavery.” They are denied an education, health care and contact with their families, suffer from malnutrition and neglect, and an estimated 80% are abused.

We can easily make a difference to this terrible situation as laws already exist in Senegal to protect these children and they need only to be implemented. In addition, a new law to regulate Daaras was put forth but is being stalled. There are parliamentary committees and NGOs and lawmakers who all want to move ahead and implement these policies to protect at-risk children, but the President has so far stalled and failed to provide the leadership necessary to counter opposition from small but powerful religious factions. It is time to shed more light on this terrible situation so that the President steps up and called for the implementation of Senegalese laws to protect children.