Do Beggars annoy you?
Do beggars annoy you? Does the sight of young children asking for handouts or women with babies dressed in rags make you mutter about ‘people who can’t do a honest day’s work’? Ever wonder why begging annoys us middle-class folks so much?
Sure, I’m not saying that every beggar on the road is deserving of your charity or that you must necessarily handover money. Yet, partly, it is a feeling that public spaces belong to us and they are just an eyesore taking up space. After all, it’s not hard to turn away without giving them a penny, so why the righteous anger? Perhaps it is a belief (which we may never articulate or even know that we have) that the poor deserve their poverty - that they didn’t do enough to get ahead (unlike us, hard-working and deserving folks).
Ex-IAS officer Harsh Mander has been writing about this issue in detail, and in one of these articles, he says, “Beggars are therefore seen not as a spectacular human tragedy but an impediment to traffic.” That says more about us of course than about the beggars on our roads. That article also provides some inputs from a study which found that, contrary to public perception, begging is not the first choice for most homeless people.
Beggars include abandoned children, the abandoned elderly, those from families that have broken up with the men migrating for jobs, the disabled, those ousted from their homes (repossessed for works of ‘public good’) and those displaced from rural areas due to famine and floods. Frequently, they may not know people in the new city/town they find themselves in and so, find it hard to get work. Ask yourself - would you hire a maid or a nanny who doesn’t have anyone in the locality to refer her?
Which is why, this ad (above) released recently by the Karnataka State Government riled me. While it has a few points on the centres set up for destitute people, the overall tone is one of how beggary needs to be penalized. Tellingly, the first 2 points on its list are about legal and punitive measures against begging. At the bottom (not visible in the pic) is a police phone number for people to call and report beggars. In other words, abdicate responsibility for the pitiable condition of people in many of Karnataka’s districts and focus on arresting them instead. Much easier, and a sop to middle-class vote banks that want a ‘cleaner’ city, never mind the human cost.
I must admit I do at times get irritated but more often I feel sad especially when I see young children begging…
Beggary eradication is fine but what is the government doing to rehabilitate those who have no skills to earn a living and begging is their only option? All vote getting gimmicks…
Just wondering why my comment didn’t appear…This is a test comment…
Thought provoking post
I usually am of the opinion that begging is offensive but you set me thinking
Entirely in agreement with you here. Whether it is begging, teen pregnancy, this whole ‘making something out of your life’ even when there is a vicious circumstantial cycle all around , in all these cases the argument, ‘they put themselves there in the first place’ or ‘why don’t they do something about this’ just does not cut it. You are in essence putting in a position where you judge another from the position ‘you’ are in.. I wish people would think for a moment that many of the supposedly intelligent/rational decisions many of us make are in many cases functions of where we are born and that isn’t always a choice!
It is as thought about, not a simple black and white problem.
With what Harsh Mander says about being true, it possibly lies with the government employment-generation department, that responsibility of appropriate rehabilitation of such people.
All life is not completely fair, so as to have our wealth as a perfect deserve-ment of our hard-work.
However, as much as people who hate poverty as a consequence of their middle-class-snobbiness, equally irresponsible are those who indulge in giving charity without a care of see-ing their charity going to deserving ends.
I agree with you… I do always wonder why we assume more right on public spaces.
And it should be illegal for local authorities to allow anybody, and specially children, women and the elderly in the open, we should have more shelters… I think it is easier for any government to call beggars a nuisance than to provide better lives for all citizens.
Thanks all for your comments.
Vidya - few of us ever take the time to step into another’s shoes. also, no doubt there are lazy people in the world, but why not give someone the benefit of the doubt when we don’t even take the trouble to know their individual circumstances?
Khalil, true, it’s not an easy problem and there are no easy solutions. I’m not sure if those who give to charity can always see through their donations right to the end though. sometimes you just trust that the orgn you’re giving to is taking care of that. to take care of this issue though, audit bodies have cropped up in the social sector that evaluate NGOs on how they spend the money. Donating to such audited NGOs will help.
IHM - the govt. finds it easier to hush up the problem than do anything about it.
Sraboney & Art - thanks for your comments. I really have no clue how they ended up in spam. Normally the akismet filter does a very good job. As others have also mentioned, it’s easier to blame people than to help them.
I wonder if you know that the Delhi govt has asked the UP govt to take back their “beggars”
No Sir, I had not heard of this! The drive against migrants is assuming ridiculous forms in more than one state, it looks like.