6 December 2013 / leggypeggy

More on buskers and beggars

This young lady got 10 rupees for doing a cartwheel. She put her brother down first

India has no shortage of beggars, but I haven’t seen all that many buskers (street performers, especially musicians).

I’ve written before about my donation policy. I’ll always give to buskers, unless someone is so bad that they shouldn’t be encouraged, but I almost never give to beggars.

This topic comes up after several encounters over the last few days.

There weren’t any beggars in the national parks and villages. But now that we’re in bigger cities, the hands out, asking for handouts, have been common.

Three days ago in the touristy hill station of Mussoorie, a well-dressed woman and boy in school uniform walked toward me on the street. As she passed, she pleadingly stuck out her hand on the off chance I might put something in it.

That’s not a professional beggar so much as an opportunist. But how do people learn such behaviour? They learn it because someone has put money in that randomly outstretched hand.

A group of children swarmed around me the other morning in a Jain temple. Their hands were out and they tugged on my clothes and arms. I spoke to them in English, at length. I won’t give you money just for asking. Do something to entertain me—a headstand, a dance, a song, anything. On my second day in India we were stopped at a traffic light and a little girl did a cartwheel. I quite willingly gave her 10 rupees. And finally I said. You haven’t understood a word I’ve said. Go to school. Learn English. Begging is not a good career move.

Or maybe it is. Anand and Deepti said these days beggars are rejecting donations of less than 10 rupees. They also said many beggars in India are becoming quite rich. I already suspected that. When I lived in Egypt in the 1970s, one of the Cairo’s well-known beggars died in the street. He had about $25,000 hidden in his clothing.

Strolling through the temple grounds before the kids swarm

Anyway, the children ran off when three women, who had been sitting nearby, called to them. They all left the temple together from a side entrance. Ten minutes later when we left by the front entrance, the same kids were there, badgering me again—hoping that persistence would pay off. It didn’t.

But the recent begging has reminded me of a sign I saw a few years back in Lalibela, Ethiopia. It was stuck on the side of a box in a restaurant. I can’t remember the exact words, but basically it said don’t give money or things to beggars, and especially don’t give anything to children. We know who needs help in this town. If you want to make a donation, put it in this box. So I did.