Beggars - to give or not to give?

One of the first things that visitors to Bombay assume is that you will be permanently accosted by hordes of beggars.
Actually, this simply isn’t true. It’s a very old-fashioned view of India. I have come across few beggars in Bombay, and they are all, so far, harmless, and by and large will leave you alone once you have given, whether the amount is small or not, or when they know you are definitely not going to give.
But beggars do exist – and what is a rich foreigner to do about the distressing poverty they live in? Believe it or not, the foreigners that I know do worry about this question quite a lot.
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The few beggars that I come across seem to fall into three categories.
The first kind are to be found near The Gateway, or Not Just Jazz By The Bay (café bar) on Marine Drive, or places where tourists hang out.
These beggars are raggedly-dressed small boys and small girls, whose wretched state (not to mention their sometimes astonishing beauty) will tug at the tourists’ heart-strings. They can be quite amazingly dogged (one six year old must have accompanied me once for a quarter of a mile, talking to me the whole time). Working the same patch as the kids and equally dogged, (surprisingly, considering their state), are the maimed – youths without legs or arms.
I’m told that these kids are often the children of migrants to the city, who are going through the first phase of migrating to Bombay – a poverty-stricken one when they are sleeping on the pavements. Or, they could be runaways. I found it at first stunning to think that these tiny children could be self-sufficient, but it turns out to be true in some cases. There are hostels for some of the ‘railway children’, but often they must find their food for themselves.

The second type of beggars I have observed are the young women (sometimes with babies) who hang around intersections waiting for the lights to turn red, when they will weave among the stopped cars, tapping on windows, asking for money.
Incidentally, the hijras (men who dress in women’s clothes, and who often have had themselves castrated) also do the tapping on the window stuff. I don’t know why, but they seem to be a little more uptight about it all than the women; I guess because they are more often than not also touting for work as prostitutes… at least round Mahalaxmi that seems the case.

And lastly, there are the traditional beggars – usually old men or women who can be found sitting at street corners, often in the blazing sun, just hoping patiently and sadly for alms.
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So – what’s the issue you ask? Why not give two rupees or five rupees (three US cents), which is as much as is expected, and move on?
In fact, this is easy enough. In the old days, if you gave to one, you would be surrounded by many. Now, with the beggars so few in number, that is not a problem in Bombay.

But now comes in the crazy logic of Charitable Giving. And, over very expensive dinners, foreigners discuss what to do. In the way that people do when they dicuss humanity at large and/or economics, it is brutally cold.
First issue at the table (usually voiced by Americans, whose very fibre philosophically opposes untested social welfare systems) is: surely we are just perpetuating the culture of begging? If nobody gives, they say, then the poor would go off and find other work (and by implication, “other work” is better for society than begging… - though I often wonder whether that includes prostitution and gangsterism. Surely… not?).
Second issue is the Europeans’ concern. Guilty over their colonial past, they do not wish to appear as the sahibs any more, and they think that to give would be only to perpetuate another issue – that the White Face means Patronage. Terrified of being accused of being patronising, they would (bizarrely) prefer not to give to the poor beggar.

And then all the other theories and objections pour on…: some say that the maimed and the children are often controlled and exploited by cruel adults, so they never see the money they earn anyway; that it’s disgusting that very young babies (who should be asleep) are touted round as pity-rousers by the heartless young women – these definitely (say the mothers at the table) should NOT be encouraged!; and meanwhile others claim that the old beggars, unable to contribute to a family income, are often forced out on street corners by their unpleasant relatives – which, again, they say, is a practice not to be encouraged.

(What I call the ‘Londoner objection’ – that beggars are all somehow making a fortune anyway – and the Not Our Problem objection – which usually boils down to ”the locals don’t give so why should we?” – are both so patently incorrect in this city, that happily they are never raised).

So – says one voice at the table – then we should Do Nothing? This obviously is not an answer either. Foreigners in India can afford to help, and most are, believe it or not, genuinely compassionate when they see the real poor of India.

How about the tithe idea? says the American Christian Socialist at this little gathering (the 'tithe' is where one automatically gives ten per cent of one’s income to caring institutions). This suggestion usually ends up in a rather unpleasantly circular conversation about how inefficiently, corruptly or badly a lot of charitable institutions in the city are run, and about how it’s pointless giving to them.
(I personally would be interested in what anyone reading this article would recommend as an efficient and worthy charity in Bombay. If you have ideas, perhaps you’d make a mention in the Comments?).

OK, says another speaker. Then the Muslim way is best – you give alms simply because it is your duty to be open-handed and caring to the less privileged, and you should not think too hard about what the end result might be. But the Westernised people here, at this table, raised on a business model of welfare, reject this completely.

Incidentally, one lady – whom I find charming, in that she has thought this through so carefully – has solved the problem in her own way by giving out biscuit-bars. The beggar kids often complain of being hungry, so she thinks the biscuits are the best solution. She even scoured the shops looking for HEALTHY biscuits as she did not want to engender a sugar habit in them! However, she was brought up sharply by her driver, who told her that the kids would be forced to sell them (as they are still in their wrappers) and the money would still have to be handed over to their ‘guardians’. So - and I tell you no lie - she now carefully unwraps the biscuits each time she gives them out, which makes them unsellable, which ensures the kids get to eat them…
(However, another foreigner whom I know still frowns even on this – as she says it still perpetuates the dependence cycle, even though it is not money).

And thus the dinner table usually breaks up (after expensive coffee liqueurs) - with the problem unresolved !
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So… what do I do?
Well, it’s an incomplete answer and doesn’t satisfy all the objections above – but here is my response. I give to the Railway Children (a charity for India, based in England – its credentials appear to be all one could ask for).
I never give to anyone who asks. This might seem weird – but that means I make it a point of honour to give on all occasions to the old people and the maimed (or whoever) crouching on the street undemandingly waiting for alms. All those who ask, i.e. the kids, hijras, young women with babies and even the maimed, get nothing… well, except biscuits(!), when I have them.
It isn’t very satisfactory as a solution of course. And because it is so very unsatisfactory, I reserve the right to change my mind at any moment – and just give to whom I like, and do whatever I feel!

Anyone else do anything else? I’d honestly be interested to know. Stick a comment on…
(PS - you don't need to leave your email, or sign in when you comment... commenting is Open on this blog)

Links
Railway Children Charity