[Reader-list] THOUGHTS ON BEGGING

[Vichaarak t]

26/01/06
Today in the morning I was returning from my office, when I stopped at
a red light, I saw a beggar knocking at the window of my car asking
for 'something'. At the same time she was trying to show a glimpse of
her malnourished baby, may be to stir up my emotional nerves so that I
may 'help' her. On the next red light I saw an old man doing the same.
On these moments many thoughts pass through my mind. Will it be
justified to pay in kind or cash? Why these people have chosen to beg?
Who is responsible for their state? If a person is physically fit to
work why is he or she is not doing any job or they don't get it? On
what basis to differentiate who is fit to receive 'charity' and who is
not? What is the responsibility of the state and society towards them
? By paying them are we not trying to make to continue in the same
state or if we don't pay than will they be able to survive? Most of
the ladies are carrying small babies, are these their own babies or
available on rent? Are these women married then what there husbands
are doing? Do they have a notion of a family as a unit. How they find
a match for marriage? How their kinship network operates? Is paying to
'them' a charity on 'our' part?

29/01/06
On the other day I received a letter from UNICEF saying that it will
take just a stroke of pen to save a life. I wondered whether this is
not another form of begging. If I can pay to UNICEF then why not to
the road side beggar? Or is it that in this 'sector'' of begging there
is a division of privileged and unprivileged or organized and
unorganized.