When you Face a Beggar

When you face a beggar
Dalip Singh Wasan, Advocate.

I have been told by a couple from USA that here in India people are like a crowd and they also told me that beggars are on higher side. We , the people of India had introduced this charity system and when it was introduced, none of us could tell. We have been told that even great rishis and bhagatas who were living in jungles or in mounain caves had been visiting the people with families and they were begging from them and the people were happy to give them charity believing that by this act they shall be paving their way to Heaven. And since then the beggars had been telling us and had been assuring us that we shall get Heaven if we give a beggar something with which he could lead a life.
Time has come when we should have an eye what that couple said to me. They were of the view that beggars in India are on higher side. It clearly means that some people are available as beggars in their own countries too. But there, as per their statement, the state is giving some unemployment allowances to the people who are not in a position to get work or are not in a position to work because of some long term disease or because of they are handicapped. Here in India begging has become a profession, a trade, a calling and an employment. Some families have adopted begging as a profession. They beg, they deploy their children on this field and sometime they are picking up children of others, are handicapping those children and then those children are put at places to beg and in the evening these professionals pick them up back and prepare them for the nest day. There are reports that these people are picking up children and the police is not in a position to catch these persons because they transport the child to some far of place immediately without any waste of time and till the police comes in action, they have done their duty. Some gangs are working against money and the beggars are deploying them against money. Some girl children could be converted at a later stage as prostitutes, dancing girls, dave dassis, call girls or the like.
The state has already passed laws prohibiting begging, but the state could not implement the law because if the state starts catching these beggars, they shall create an additional burden on the state which is already with empty exchequers. The beggars are increasing and we can find them at the railway stations, at the bus stands, in the streets, in fronts of the temples, gurdwaras and at all the religious places. A beggar once was surprised to note that he could collect more money when he spent the day before a hotel where wine was served and then he said, " Oh God you have given me wrong address. I had been sitting before religious places and could not collect two time meals, but today I had sat before a wine house and I could collect money for two three day".
If India wants that its name should appear in countries which have declared themselves as advanced countries, they shall have to stop all these beggars and if they are not in a position to stop begging, they shall never be allowed entry in the list of advanced countries. Beggars are a curse and the people must wash it away. None should be allowed to beg and the state must think on the subject. Our forefathers had introduced this concept of charity. That had been a wrong action and it must be written off today because we are not tolerating all this and people coming from abroad are passing adverse remarks on us. This is very bad and therefore, each of us must start thinking on this subject and the people can do one thing, they must stop giving charity to the beggars in spite of the fact that their inner soul is prompting them to give something to the beggar. If the state has failed, we should come forward and the people can do what the state cannot do. If we stop giving anything in charity, we shall see that all those who are running asharams, matths and deras shall also wipe off from the scene and we shall turn a free country. These additional people who want our support are turning us poor and they must be stopped from snatching away our hard earned money.