What do you do when you are begged?

Yesterday, when I was sitting with a friend at a so-called “modern” hangout, I couldn’t help noticing that there were a good number of small children begging, and they displayed a particular art in it. Notwithstanding the feelings I have about the present state of poverty in the country, I was amazed to find out that one of the small kids knew the in and out of human response system. The beggar knows how to successfully gather a response from the begged (used hereafter for the person whom the beggar is approaching for alms). It seems he had a well calculated threshold time limit till somebody could ignore him, pretending to be in deep conversation. Once that time limit is reached, there are two options that the begged has. He could reach his wallet, either with an offer for the beggar, or to get rid of the irritation the beggar is causing. Or, he could hush him away, either with a modest protest, or a verbal attack, so as to make his intentions clear. That he is not going to melt out by the emotional chords the beggar is trying to touch, or surface out.

What is noteworthy here is the immense presence of mind that the kid displays, his expert opinion on human psyche, and his acute understanding of human behaviour. I am sure given a chance he would teach all the psychologists or psycho-analysts how to interpret human reactions. With the endless hours of practice that the kid does in his profession (well, I heard somewhere that begging has become an industry itself), the different set of people he meets everyday and the different responses he attracts from them, the understanding of the whole society grows on in his mind and he becomes a master in his area, counseling newbies on how to get a favorable response.

Well, that brings me to the point. In this contemporary setup, when we are complaining about corrupted, value-less society, what we need to do is check the grounds on which the values are getting eroded. What else could we expect if we don’t bother to think about the innumerable small kids begging for alms, money, food or attention? What, in essence, we are promoting is a huge battalion of criminals (in a way), the army of people who don’t see any other end to the quandary they are in. The individuals who happily sacrifice/disobey the values they are supposed to possess and display. And why wouldn’t they? What we, the so-called educated class, does about this whole issue? We are good at blaming the poor kid for his disobeyance of the social code. But, do we care to understand his psyche? Do we ever care about the reasons why he is begging at the first place? In most cases, it becomes a necessity, a lineage that the kid inherits from his family. Instead of being taught morals and values, the kid is left to survive on his own, and in this ruthless world, the poor kid finds no other way to feed his hunger and desires. And the response he gets from everyone further strengthens his non-belief in the existence by moral standards.

I believe it’s high time we should tackle this whole issue on face. We, as individuals, could combat this ever-increasing problem of poverty, not only by donating to the charitable trusts, but by actually ensuring that each one of us take responsibility of 1 child’s future atleast. Not very far would be that day when we could have happiness spread all around us, and when I suggest this, I do so with full statistical information of earnings of Indians and the change they can bring if they are willing to.