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-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 inconsistentapproach 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 thatperson. But is this correct?

The benefits of 5Rp: If each person who could afford to give, gavethe beggar 5Rp perhaps she could earn 150Rp a day. This is enoughto live off. It is a regular income granted but it is money that cannever improve the situation of the beggar. When we give to abeggar we hope that they buy food, buy new clothes or health care.We hope to improve the situation the beggar finds themselves in webelieve that with 50rp the beggar could buy a new shirt. But with anew shirt the beggar would no longer look the part of a beggar, the

likely hood of them getting further charitable donations isdecreased. So the beggar keeps his old tatty clothes and uses themoney for food. Acceptable use of your money. But it by no meansimproves the situation of the beggar. Begging is not a means to anend; it is itself an end. A dead end.

To improve the situation of the beggar there must be a much largerdonation. Enough money, to be able to make someone self-sufficient. What is the price of that? It is far beyond any individualcan give, or any group of individuals can give. Furthermore it has to

be more than money. What good is money if it is merely beingpassed from one beggar to the next? There has to be a way to make

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the beggar self-sufficient. Educating a person so they can qualify for job opportunities. Or make jobs available for those with littleeducation. These are gifts that can only be supplied by a largedonation from a lot of people and orchestrated by a respectedgovernment. I wonder why do beggars beg for money and not beg

the government; their fellow citizens; the global press for access toeducation, 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 adifference to a nations problem. At first I took that as a vindicationnot to give as the donations of an individual will not solve theproblem but lately I have seen this statement in a new light. If it istrue that one person cannot make a difference then they cannotmake right a nations problem, true, but in addition they cannotmake worse a nations problem.

Is this true? If I give to a beggar am I supporting the beggingindustry? Am I fuelling future generations to look upon begging asan acceptable way to make money? It is often the case that parentssend out their children begging because people are more likely togive to an innocent child than a unfortunate adult. Whats worse isthe parents teach the children who are the most likely to give. Theyare taught to recognise a rich tourist when they see one. They aretaught how to look sad, how to look hungry and how to yank theheart 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 amtorn in two as to what to do. I hoped this rant would clear my headbut I dont think it has.

I have to comment on Hard Rock Caf incident. After alreadyspending about 400RP on becoming intoxicated and mixing withIndias can-afford-class we were lead to Hard Rock Caf by a verywell off Indian (judging by the thousand Rupee notes he had.) Onthe way a small girl came out of the dark, held my hand and walkedwith me down the street. Other children latched on to my westernfriends 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 RockCaf and paid 160Rp for a beer. I felt sick. I wanted to run back tothat 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 ofthe little girl. They had become immune to her and her kind. Iwondered how they could be ok with it. I wondered how they hadbecome so immune, so ignorant to it all. I wondered how an entirenation 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 Isat and drank the beer. I had been in India only 3 weeks and I was

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becoming blind to what was around me. I began to understand justhow easy it is to become blind when the bright lights of Hard Rockcafs neon sign shines so bright and the familiar haze of one toomany kingfishers kicks in. As we left Hard Rock Caf I could see thechildren approaching us again, the locals shouted at them and even

raised their fists to them. They were clearly beyond any form ofempathy. The children ran off, almost playfully, they were blissfullyunaware of the feelings they had evoked.