Why we need to stop giving money to beggars

CA Hardik Joshi , Last updated: 30 July 2018  
  Share


I am living in Ahmedabad, and I am used to going office on a bike. During commutation from home to office, two traffic signals are coming. In each traffic signal, I am seeing many poor children, women, disables, etc. doing begging. They are doing begging in such a way that people likely to give one rupee, five rupee coins to them either out of pity or out of harassment.

I observed that the majority of beggars are the same, and they continue begging irrespective of the quantum of money received. In India, people are used to giving petty donations to such beggars out of pity, religious beliefs or earning blessings. In festival season, it is very common to found huge no. of beggars sitting outside a temple, mosque, Dersar etc. religious and crowded places. 

As per a study by WHO, India is having highest no. of beggars than in any other country in the world. Are we actually doing well by giving petty funds to these beggars? Giving donations to beggars are a social sin. As money earned out of begging is not hard-earned money. It is discrimination against the person who worked hard and managed to fulfill their daily needs.

In newspapers, media, we are observing news about human trafficking. Many gangs are operating who are engage in forced child begging. Frequently, children are kidnapped and sold to outside countries or forced to become child beggar. Ransom monies aare neverdemanded. Child beggars are a major source of income for such gangsters. Children are helpless and easy to control. Such child beggars are living in extreme conditions. In Spite of giving handsome money to them, their situations will never improve. 

Sometimes, an entire family is also engaged in begging activity. Parents themselves teach their children about the art of begging. All are uneducated and lazy. Begging is a very vicious circle in an Indian context. By giving petty donations, actually, we are encouraging wrong practice or more crime.

I would like to quote one of the stories of Panchtantra.

Once upon a time, there was a King named Rajdrath. He is very generous and has proud of his generosity. He is providing free meals to each and every citizens and traveler of their kingdom. All his citizens, courtiers are praising king about his generosity. One day, a scholar from Nalanda University came in his kingdom. He has heard about the generosity of King Rajdrath and observing his free meals facility. He warns King Rajdrath about the danger of giving a free meal to everybody. All the majority of the youth of the Kingdom is surviving on free food rather than doing any hard work. King was actually digging his own grave.

In India, Government has taken many initiatives to curb begging practices. Many NGOs (non - government organization) are engaging in uplifting children, women, aged etc engage in begging activity. NGOs are also imparting vocational training and other supports to such poor and helpless people.

If any person, who really wants to help the poor, helpless, disabled beggar, he should;

  • In any ceremony such as a wedding ceremony, birthday party, Marriage anniversary etc., it is quite often that food is lying in huge quantity.  One should call to NGOs such as feeding India, Robinhood army etc. who are taking such excess food and distribute it to needy people.           
  • When any person notices a child beggar, he or she should report such incident to police or NGOs such as helping faceless. Helping faceless is an NGO involved in an activity of rescuing child beggar and handover them to his/her original parents.
  • Instead of giving petty donations to beggars, one should give donations to NGOs like Ram Krishna Mission, Mera Parivar, Helping faceless etc. Before giving donations, one should thoroughly check about the credibility of such NGOs for the sake of social responsibility. 
  • In nutshell, by giving petty donations to beggars, we are actually committing social sin. We are an indirectly encouraging the practice of easy money and human trafficking. Instead, we should donate appropriate money to NGOs who are engaged in uplifting such helpless, uneducated and unemployed people. It is an important step in nation building and earning blessings in a true sense.
Join CCI Pro

Published by

CA Hardik Joshi
(Credit Manager)
Category Others   Report

11 Likes   13689 Views

Comments

25 June 2019 jasmeet singh

great article Government must have to take necessary steps in this regard.


24 June 2019 Dinesh Yadav

yesterday before sleeping I got a thought of Y should we give beggars to money ? and my answer just got instead of giving money and encourage them to beg, I got thought of Feeding them ? and yes are they really Happy for it or there sole purpose is only to earn money . coincidence 🙏. just seen this article


24 June 2019 bjk

The life on the earth is alive because of people still do trust other... if someone deceit us does not means that we should stop believing other. if everyone distrust others, life will come to end. All the cause of charity / donations are good in itself and we should continue irrespective of a few of them are not worth. if we can identify then that is best, but not, we should not stop helping other. Hardik rightly said, we should take / refer these differently abled people to respect NGOs. where we give money or not


24 June 2019 rameshnbabu ramesh

such a great awareness you article is.


24 June 2019 Himanshu Nema

nice article .. u have raised a valid point which is to be monitored by local Govt. and local citizens.


03 August 2018 palaveni venkatesh

yeah it's correct people who are lazy and who are don't want to work or for easy money they select this activity as a profession.....


31 July 2018 C.A. Nadeem

I still feel we should give money to beggar. As No one knows. He must have extreme need for money. May be for medicines. I had seen many beggars who are really really need for money after going deeply into their homes and condition. Pls help beggars God has given you money. You will not get impact for giving them.


31 July 2018  CA Hardik Joshi
@C.A. Nadeem Dear Nadeem, I have tried to convey hazards of petty donations to beggars. In second last para, I have made emphasize to give donations to those NGOs who are actually working for upliftment of poor people. in each religious book, donations to poor people is mentioned as virtue. but , we should take care that our donation truely helpful to poor guy or not. it is our social obligation to curb human trafficking and implement fair practice towards hardworking person.
  

31 July 2018  Kalpesh
We often read news about fraud NGOs also, there is no surety your money will use for good purpose only.
  

31 July 2018  Ali Ahmed Khan
Very Nice Article, Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) has rightly said HAND WHICH GIVES IS MUCH BETTER THAN HAND WHICH COLLECTS (BY BEGGING) (DENE WALAA HATH LENE WAALE HAATH SE BEHTAR HAI) Really begging has become the business due to which many teenager & young man & women becomes habitual to lazy work.. but on the other part efforts should be made at government as well as at personal level to cover up necessities of common citizen, because genuine (especially old age person) in need, if any, should not remain undiscovered. Hardik Sir Thanks for Sharing such a nice article...
  

31 July 2018  CA Hardik Joshi
@Kalpesh Correct Kalpesh. before giving donations, we should check activities of NGO. As many NGOs are engaged in converting black money into white
  

30 July 2018 CA Karan Sathe

Great Article! I saw many times 60-70 years old woman collecting plastics from garbage and earning through this. She does not beg. She is earning independently. From that day onwards, I never give any rupees to beggars.


31 July 2018  CA Hardik Joshi
@Karan Sathe thanks buddy
  

31 July 2018  Kalpesh
Yes, there are lots of other earning options available.
  

Your are not logged in . Please login to post comments.

Click here to Login / Register