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What <strong>do</strong> you do when faced with poverty in India?

Guilty or Not Guilty

Steve_t
2005-01-22 07:37:39

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as if it has been broken for some time, and his breath smells of alcohol. Or am I being excessively sceptical? He begins by addressing me as if I were a long lost friend, and leaves, empty-handed, in disgust, looking for another Western tourist to approach.

I've frequently been accosted by women carrying babies. The women insist that they don't want my money. Instead, they ask me to buy them milk powder or rice from a nearby shop. Once I'm out of sight the product is returned to the shop where the woman and the owner divide the proceeds - it's a well-known scam.

In Mumbai, a young girl with a baby came up to me and asked for money. Unsuccessful, she tried another tourist - who gave some small change. A few minutes later, I watched as the same tourist was approached by a different young girl, only she was holding the same baby!

As well as the "milk powder" scam and the "share a baby" scheme, there are stories of "beggar mafias" where the money collected by a group of children is handed over to a sort of Fagin, the children themselves receiving little or nothing. Of reasonably comfortable families who will send their children out to beg, shabbily dressed, rather than send them to school. I've also read about and heard tales of young children, especially girls, who are blinded or mutilated or crippled by their parents so that they will evoke more sympathy on the streets. One writer described this as "an attempt to guarantee a more successful life of begging."

As I walk past the beggars and pavement dwellers, I feel guilty. Not because I've just spent more on one meal than most of them will see in several months. Nor because I haven't given them anything when I could so easily afford to. But precisely because they no longer make me feel guilty. After eighteen months in South East Asia I can walk by without feeling uncomfortable or mean or in some way responsible. I don't even feel irritated by their constant pleading any more. And that makes me a little sad.

I've heard all the arguments. That it's better to give money to an organization than to individuals. (I do.) That giving money just encourages them. (So they're really going to stop begging if no one gives them anything?) That it encourages a culture of begging. (They don't beg because it's better or easier than the alternative - in most cases there is no alternative.)

I don't refuse all beggars, although I hardly ever give them money. Sometimes after breakfast I buy a kilo of bananas, which I give to the children. (Giving out biscuits or sweets to children who have no access to dental care is not exactly an act of kindness.) I used to offer bananas to adults as well - but they almost always refused - they wanted rupees. The children eat the bananas on the spot.

Giving my last two bananas to a couple of children one day, I was asked by another long-term tourist in South India why I bothered. There's so much poverty in India, I was told, and a few bananas aren't going to make any difference.

Her comments reminded me of a story about a young girl on a beach where thousands of starfish had become stranded at low tide - they would all die in the heat of the midday sun before the tide came in again. The young girl was busy throwing them back into the ocean when a man approached her. He pointed out the futility of her task."There are so many starfish on this beach that you can't possibly make a difference." Bending down, she picked up a starfish."I can make a difference to this one," she said, throwing it as far into the water as she could."And this one... and this one..."