The Profession of Begging

I personally, from a long time, consider begging as a most disgraceful job out there. In countries like India, this has become a very popular work for this twenty-first century. And by this word “Profession” I really intend to compare begging to other jobs out there in our corporate world. However, people who once used to beg, just because they had nothing to eat, nothing to wear, unable to find any way to earn some money to survive in this universe, should be kept out of this set. These guys might be beggars by fate, but they have no other mean to survive. For them begging is a mean to live …not a profession.

                Then, the question might arise that, whom are we talking about here? The PROFESSIONAL BEGGERS. While the poverty is real, begging is quite often carried out in organized gangs. For the privilege of begging in a certain territory, each beggar must hand over their takings to the gang's ring leader or, who keeps a significant share of it, or divide the money collected among all equally. Beggars have also been known to deliberately maim and disfigure themselves to get more money. In fact those beggars who work on their own set up a bench –mark for the donation. The minimum donation must meet a certain amount. Otherwise, they even refuses to take the donation. Also, some of these beggars can be very deceptive, even the children. While they may be all smiles or pleading faces, they could very well be speaking rudely to you in their own language. For a foreign tourist who's not used to seeing so much widespread poverty, it can be confronting and difficult to resist giving money. However, the reality is that it's likely you're not actually helping.

                The most painful thing is that a person who is capable of physically working, who can go from house to house to collect money for living during the hot noon time, doesn’t choose to work in other people’s house or as labor to earn their bread. They earn, without any contribution to the society, although they are capable.

                But these are some of the small scale professional beggars. The real professional beggars are those people who run certified organizations only on donation. These god loving people are neither poor, nor hopeless. And they don’t take penny. They take cash against bills. These people name begging as collection of money in the name of god, and people blindly support them. It is very sad to say, but this money is not counted for tax payment, and thus, is actually a primary source of black money, worth millions. This group of people belong to this earth from the earliest sense of humanity and drain humanity, both physically and spiritually. These people are the worst enemy of humanity.

                Begging is a pathology which has been deeply entrenched in our society. The origins of begging can be traced to the culture where sadhus used to roam around and live only on donations in form of food and shelter.

Present day begging on the other hand exposes the widespread inequality that is present in our society. The sections of the society who mostly engage in begging are trans-genders, old-aged people, handicaps, children, and women. Trans-genders have been ostracized by our society. No one give them work, either personal or institutional. Have any individual ever seen a form where there is section for gender who is not a M or F. Recently a report in The Hindu speaks  of how police department does not recruit trans-genders even if they are fit enough for the job.

                On the other hand there exists people who collect funds for kind purpose. "Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi gave up his job as an electrical engineer to dedicate himself to protecting and advancing child rights for over three decades now, freeing 80,000 child laborers and giving them new hope in life." Did he get anything from those children just after liberating them? NO. All he had was a determined goal and help all others who needed him, on his way. His family life is astoundingly happy, even though he has to face the police on a daily basis.  You see …. These people are not beggars. They collect money for social welfare. And I would personally like to contribute, not donate out of pity.

                Begging is not a profession. – This is all I want to say. If one has the capability or the opportunity to earn his or her bread by working he should never beg under any circumstance. But at the sometime we should help people who really need it. Don’t give alms but help someone who need.

                I would compare giving money to the homeless to giving blood after a disaster.  Whenever there is some major disaster (9/11 for example) everyone feels a rush of sympathy and runs to their local blood bank.  They want to help without realizing that they would be doing more good if they actually waited to donate during a time where blood banks typically have shortages (like the holiday season).  After a disaster, blood banks get way more blood than they can use and everyone feels like they "did their part".  As a result, when banks really need blood a month or two later (blood expires in 42 days), they do not get enough donors because everyone feels like they already contributed their fair share.

                Thus if you give donation to the right place or to the right person, It is more than what can bring happiness to this universe. But giving away your money to professional beggars is nothing but wasting your money. Help a needy worker. Help the begging kid on the road who would take anything you give, even a piece of your eaten food. We give hundred times more money to religious organizations than that little boy, with hunger. Try to give him more than a coin someday.  That boy will smile at you, not ask you to donate more next time.