-1Should

I give to the next street beggar I meet?

Countless times on this trip I have come across people on the street who beg me for money. So far I have taken a very inconsistent approach towards them. The majority of times I refuse to give them money, I ignore them, I even try not to look at them. In the minority of cases I hand over small sums of money, usually loose change, coins worth 2 Rp or 5 Rp. It dawned on me that I hand over loose coins easily because they are a burden to me. I am likely to loose them, they are heavier than notes and they rattle in my pocket. So far I have calibrated my moral compass on the scale of convenience; I use this scale because I have yet to reason what to do. This is my attempt at reason. To give 5Rp, 10Rp even 20Rp to a street beggar will in no way affect the budget of the trip. If I encounter 10 beggars each day, giving away 50Rp each day, I can counter this by choosing not to drink or not to have that mango juice. The total will be 5000Rp over the course of the trip, about 70. I can afford to give to charity. So why don't I? I think my main worry is that the short term gain in giving a person 5Rp is countered by a much larger overall negative outcome for that person. But is this correct? The benefits of 5Rp: If each person who could afford to give, gave the beggar 5Rp perhaps she could earn 150Rp a day. This is enough to live off. It is a regular income granted but it is money that can never improve the situation of the beggar. When we give to a beggar we hope that they buy food, buy new clothes or health care. We hope to improve the situation the beggar finds themselves in we believe that with 50rp the beggar could buy a new shirt. But with a new shirt the beggar would no longer look the part of a beggar, the likely hood of them getting further charitable donations is decreased. So the beggar keeps his old tatty clothes and uses the money for food. Acceptable use of your money. But it by no means improves the situation of the beggar. Begging is not a means to an end; it is itself an end. A dead end. To improve the situation of the beggar there must be a much larger donation. Enough money, to be able to make someone selfsufficient. What is the price of that? It is far beyond any individual can give, or any group of individuals can give. Furthermore it has to be more than money. What good is money if it is merely being passed from one beggar to the next? There has to be a way to make

the beggar self-sufficient. Educating a person so they can qualify for job opportunities. Or make jobs available for those with little education. These are gifts that can only be supplied by a large donation from a lot of people and orchestrated by a respected government. I wonder why do beggars beg for money and not beg the government; their fellow citizens; the global press for access to education, for a way out of poverty? So I return to the question of whether to give to the beggar or not!? Before I came to India I was told that one person cannot make a difference to a nations problem. At first I took that as a vindication not to give as the donations of an individual will not solve the problem but lately I have seen this statement in a new light. If it is true that one person cannot make a difference then they cannot make right a nations problem, true, but in addition they cannot make worse a nations problem. Is this true? If I give to a beggar am I supporting the begging industry? Am I fuelling future generations to look upon begging as an acceptable way to make money? It is often the case that parents send out their children begging because people are more likely to give to an innocent child than a unfortunate adult. Whats worse is the parents teach the children who are the most likely to give. They are taught to recognise a rich tourist when they see one. They are taught how to look sad, how to look hungry and how to yank the heart strings of all who pass by. To the children it must just seem a game, to us it is anything but. Each time a child holds my hand I am torn in two as to what to do. I hoped this rant would clear my head but I dont think it has. I have to comment on Hard Rock Caf incident. After already spending about 400RP on becoming intoxicated and mixing with Indias can-afford-class we were lead to Hard Rock Caf by a very well off Indian (judging by the thousand Rupee notes he had.) On the way a small girl came out of the dark, held my hand and walked with me down the street. Other children latched on to my western friends but not the locals. She asked me for some Rupees, I said no, it had become a reflex by this point on the trip. I went to Hard Rock Caf and paid 160Rp for a beer. I felt sick. I wanted to run back to that little girl and give her the 160Rp and see the smile on her face. My gut wretched as a drank the beer. I nearly wanted to cry. The locals we were with were embarrassed, angry and ashamed of the little girl. They had become immune to her and her kind. I wondered how they could be ok with it. I wondered how they had become so immune, so ignorant to it all. I wondered how an entire nation had become so immune to it. Part of the reason I felt so sick was that I was so embarrassed, angry and ashamed at myself as I sat and drank the beer. I had been in India only 3 weeks and I was

becoming blind to what was around me. I began to understand just how easy it is to become blind when the bright lights of Hard Rock cafs neon sign shines so bright and the familiar haze of one too many kingfishers kicks in. As we left Hard Rock Caf I could see the children approaching us again, the locals shouted at them and even raised their fists to them. They were clearly beyond any form of empathy. The children ran off, almost playfully, they were blissfully unaware of the feelings they had evoked.