I am giving below an article from my colleague Sri M Chaidambara Rao. It deplores the current societal apathy and nonchalant attitude towards beggars and asks for better understanding of the issue especially among senior citizen beggars and seek solutions.
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Author: M Chidambara Rao, President, AOSC, HYderabad
Deepavali is a celebration of
light dispelling darkness. The darkness in our minds and hearts, the evil in
our emotions is to be dispelled by light of clarity, empathy, divine love.
Are we aware of the actual spirit
and purpose of Deepavali celebration. One aspect of the darkness in our lives
is lack of empathy towards the unfortunate beings, be it human or other.
Whenever we see a beggar, whether driven by a genuine need or not, whether due
to inability to do any productive work due to physical disability or old age,
whether due to lack of mental ability, stability or lack of skill, whether due
to innocent childhood, do we recognize that there is something not correct in
our social system.
(a) We
ignore the reality that is noticed.
(b) We
consider it is someone else’s responsibility to bother about it.
(c) We
take courage is the escapist thought that it is their fate and nothing can be
done.
(d) We
take defeatist attitude and run away from the problem, considering it too big
to be dealt or remedied.
WHY, SO.
On 12th and 13th
of October, 2019, a conference was held at Haridwar, to highlight the
collective responsibility of the nation to care for the welfare of senior
citizens. The conference was held in a posh hotel and attended by members, none
of whom need any support for welfare or care. Their recognition of the need for
care by the nation of the utterly poor among senior citizens, suffering both in
urban and rural settings shows concern for the poor, neglected, abused, lonely
and ill senior citizens all over the country. And the concern shown is
laudable.
Haridwar is a holy city, visited
by several thousands of pilgrims every day.
Haridwar is also a place where a few thousands of beggars are present in
its streets and the bathing ghats of holy Ganga. The strange fact is that no
one bothers about taking care of them in contrast to the objectives of the
conference about care of senior citizens all over the country who were not
present there. Their presence and suffering are taken for granted. Our
conscience is relieved of the pain of noticing such unfortunate scene by
tossing a few coins into their dented bowls. The local administration might not
have any troubled conceiver about presence of such heavy concentration of
beggars in their city, degrading the image of Holiness of the place. The
Government of Uttarakhand does not seem to have considered it necessary to
provide succor to them and avoid their need for begging.
This situation is not special or
specific only to Haridwar or Uttarakhad. The same is the scene in any pilgrim
place in all states in the country. Go to any temple, in the north or in the
South, there will be hoards of beggars, both driven by destitution and by a
desire for easy money. It is a national problem. Neither the society in general
nor the political fraternity bestow any thought or attention to the basic
causes involved in generating such large number of beggars, and measures for
remedying them.
WHY. SO. Why is it that we turn
away our faces and pretend as if there is no problem at all.
It is a matter of disgrace to
beg. It is a much deeper disgrace for the society wherein the need to beg
exists for several lakhs of people. Reasons may be several. Have we tried
enough to analyse the same in depth and the approaches needed to avoid
existence of beggary either due to need or as a profession. It is to be noted
that a considerable part of the beggars are seniors. When we are seiged with
the problem of welfare of poor senior citizens these begging seniors also are
to be taken into consideration.
A cursory analysis shows reasons
for begging are due to:
1. Utmost
depredation due to destitution. The causes could be many like, orphaned
childhood, physical or mental
disability, or seniors driven out by their own kith and kin or lack of family
support.
2. Professional
begging:
a)
Begging adopted as an easy way of livelihood
b)
Begging after exhibiting some street
entertainment due to lack of skills required forother economic activities
c)
Begging by exploiting religious sentiment or
cheating by exploiting psychological weaknesses
d)
Begging with pressure tactics as by the third
gender people.
3. Begging
for votes, begging for more prosperity from God – these are not relevant for
our purpose.
Measures and practices required
to address the undesirable situation are many needing political will, religious
reforms, legal and institutional set ups etc. which need elaborate discussion.
Mention of this situation here is
to highlight that senior population among beggars also should be taken into
consideration in deliberations covering poor senior citizens.
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