Help to uproot Begging culture in India
Disappointed persons are seen everywhere but they are reluctant to do any work given to them to earn money and some of them are seen in a pitiable condition, physically so weak and it looks that they are just killing the time and counting for the end of the days in their life. Some of them have become addicted and if they too don’t come back to normal life, they are found to face the ultimate end of life which is death.
The illiterate persons are away from any knowledge and they don’t know the value of the life, moral values, and ethics. Not only this, some have entered into the begging profession having no investment by killing their conscience and in certain cases begging become an inherited profession.
The moment you stop your car at the traffic lights, you see dirty looking women, with a child in her arm or a handicapped old man asking for alms and it is a common sight in India. Such people are seen at various places where there is a regular crowd. Their touching words uttered by posing the innocent gestures on their faces compel us to give them some coins or money and shoo them away.
It is also seen that there are some ringleaders who indulge certain persons in to the profession of begging by sitting on the crowded corners even during the scorching heat -who are disappointed, illiterate and unable to do any work, by keeping them under his nose to pocket the lion’s share with him by providing them a small place to live. It is not less than any other scam in the country.
Begging profession is at a large scale in metro cities by the children of 4-14 years – the age not for begging but for studying.
India is a poverty-driven country in spite of its rapid economic growth and begging is one of the most serious social issues in India, which is leading to the growth of beggars in the country.
In some cases, the whole family is involved in begging and in certain cases who are actually real ones, who beg because they are handicapped, inability to work, too old or blind because they really need money for basic needs. Such persons are either not accepted by their own family members or by the society who are running charitable institutions or they themselves don’t want to confine themselves within the four walls of such institutions.
But, I would definitely say that begging is not the solution for such a situation.
Frankly speaking, the foremost reason for giving a helping hand to begging is that by giving a few coins to the poor persons as it makes you feel all good and silky inside when in return you hear the blessings which are not from the core of heart but by virtue of his profession and technique of extracting money from you.
What I feel is poverty is real in India but not begging. But it has become big racket in the country and they are so involved in this profession that they don’t want to work on any other job by learning some skill and they are so trained to become very persistent while begging that you are bound to give them money as they earn in thousands and lakhs much more than a normal worker. Even some of them slowly graduate to pickpocketing and they become so strong that then they shift to bigger scams like robbing and killing.
In fact, begging has grown at a significant rate in India and it is estimated that around half a million people in India are beggars. Many measures have been taken at the government level and by the social activists but not successful to put a complete check on it and to eradicate it completely. This is the reason that begging still continues. The blame directly lies on us as we Indians are very orthodox, God-fearing and religious minded which compels us to do donations.
Now the questions arise as to what we should do? It becomes our moral responsibility to stop this hazard rather I would say nuisance. As a one step to prevent begging is to stop giving alms except when you know that handicap beggar is genuine and try to involve more people to adopt this habit. With this trend, I am sure the beggary will not only be uprooted, from the country to greater extent rather compel the beggars to shift to earn by giving service to the society.
The effort to help beggar’s needs public support with a commitment, not to give money to the street beggars rather help them instead in kind only. At the same time, the government should take a decision to ban it in the country but carry on with its poverty mitigation programme, to make India a better place to live in.
