Richie Rich through Begging!!!

Its been ages I have updated the blog and today, finally, I found the appropriate subject. Yeah, I know, its been a long time and I can't say that I wasn't free to update the blog but I can certainly say that I had not found appropriate topic for the blog. But today I decided to write what I saw when I had been out to temple. If you are a citizen of India, or even if you aren't, what do you see when you first enter the temple? The answer to this question is very very easy; we see Large number of Beggars sitting in front of a temple in a straight line. Its as if they have made a long queue and are waiting for their chance to come as to when God will shower them with lots of money, food, fruits, basically, whatever they can get. But do they actually get their chance? Does God shower them with blessings? Here is the irony, more than showing us his love, he shows them their love. Now most of the readers would think, why would she say such a thing? Aren't we suppose to show pity towards them? Help them in whatever way we can? These are some of the questions I will be answering today in this post.

This is the most common picture we see on our roads, bus/railway stations, temples, almost everywhere. And we immediately feel sorry for it. But is it worth feeling sorry for? According to me, absolutely no. And the reason is, at the end of the day, whatever they earn or beg does not go in their pocket. But rather it goes in the pocket of a thug or contractor who have hired them. They have their own associations and did you know, you can't be a beggar until and unless you register in one of the association. Then whatever a beggar earns throughout the day, almost 70% of it goes to that contractor of the association. Almost all of us must have seen Slumdog Millionaire and 80% would have said- nah, this is not the condition in India. Foreign people like to put us down and thats the reason they have showed this condition. But trust me when I say this, that is the real condition. Infants are stolen from govt hospitals everyday. They are given to girls or young women or kids on rental basis. Because when you see a baby, your heart melts and you end up giving more money. Some of the kids are even mutilated so that they will get Pity Money.

Now this is one side of the story. What are the actual statistics? India's capital, Delhi, alone is the home for 120,000 odd beggars. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of beggars followed by Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal and Rajasthan. These are the statistics of 2010, before the CW games. After reading all this, readers will be thinking, why would anyone want to become a beggar? It must be because they don't have any other choice. You are certainly wrong here my friend. Because they are doing it as it is easy money. They just have to sit there, ditch their self respect in a nearby bin and act as if they don't know anything in the world. Wham! They get the money. Who would not want that? Here comes my today's experience as a proof for this. I had gone to Shani temple and it was very crowded. The queue had come on the road. And beside temple queue there was other line of people sitting. Ya, you guessed it right. They were beggars. But I was shocked to see them. Because all were dressed in fine clothes. Bit dirty if I say so. Almost all of them were aged below 50 and some of the men were even drunk. They had bags n bags full of eating goods. And as it was auspicious day, people kept on giving them more and more. They were all healthy, some of them even fat to tell the truth. Then why were they begging there? Because it was easy to beg than earn their food. I have few pictures which i took today. Hope it gives my friends a clear picture.

The lady you see on cycle here is pretending to be handicap and those packets of biscuits they have gathered just in the evening. Even though that lady in pink can see the goods displayed she is giving more items to them. Whose fault is it then? Sadly, I find the fault is with us. If we do not encourage them, they will end up working and for those who are truly in need, they have shelter homes and we are there to help them. Begging sadly has turned into a business now which has to come to an end but sadly its Vicious Circle of Poverty which will take all the efforts possible.

I must bring an end here as time for me to hit the bed has come. Though I haven't covered all the aspects of poverty and beggary, I hope readers have got my message.

Men are made stronger on realization that the helping hand they need is at the end of their own arm. ~Sidney J. Phillips