Begging

Begging (or panhandling) is to request a donation in a supplicating manner. Beggars are commonly found in public places such as street corners or public transport, where they request money, most commonly in the form of spare change. They may use cups, boxes or hats to collect the donations. (wikipedia.com)

I'll show you some ways of begging and how to deal with it.

Child begging

Child labour in terms of begging is used as a profession by insecure group of people that forces children to beg. A child can earn maximum money by begging. They show burns on their faces and hands so they can earn more. As they grow older their earnings decrease, which gets most of them involve in robbery and prostitution. Child begging is the exploitation of children for money making reasons. Most of the people view it as way of relief for their hunger and unsatisfied needs. Earlier people believed that beggars were be physically disabled people who could not find work so they have to beg for their survival. However it has been noticed that nowadays that majority of them are physically normal children but due to their un-hygienic condition they may prone to get health problems.



Begging in th Internet

Begging like other activities has also adapted to the net taking on an "e-panhandling" role. Instead of begging on the streets, cyber panhandlers set up a website where they "beg" for money. Later variants tried to request money for their personal needs that were beyond their financial ability with some success. Begging has also become commonplace in the chatrooms of various gambling and poker websites. In poker sites, one will frequently see someone claiming that they are so good at the game that if someone lends $10, that it will be back to the lender with interest in a very short period of time. These may be desperate gaming addicts who have run dry, or they may not gamble at all and simply withdraw the money for their own use. Players of online games may beg for in-game currency, such as Gold in MMOs or Lindens in Second Life, which can be converted to real world currency.

Begging as profession in India

The beggars are fairly well-organized although they not unionized. They view new beggars with suspicion and try to find out his/her depth by typical questionnaires. They have a means of estimating and budgeting income and expenses. A small town beggar has a hard time to raise two to three Rupees per day while a city beggar can easily earn ten bucks. During the festivals, they could earn as much as thirty Rupees (the time of this writing). For commoners, this may look like a paltry sum, but we have to understand that the beggars do not have any expenses. No rent, no groceries to buy. The leftovers from the hotels is their dinner; else every beggar typically has a godmother who never refuses food for him/her. The roadside food courts typically provide discount prices to beggars. They travel in buses which have friendly conductors, without tickets and they always know that temples/churches/railway stations can be used for toilet and sleeping. Since they do not have a safe place to keep money, they carry with them all the time.

Is there any solution for begging problem?

In Makassar (Indonesia), for instance, citizens are banned from giving money to beggars. China and France have considered moving beggars permanently (though not into shelters or social service programs that work on root issues of begging and related social problems).

More innovative programs have been implemented, including street collection boxes in Aberdeen, Scotland, though many end in failure.


Still, Mexico City thinks it’s come up with the solution for street begging and the moral discomfort it raises in the prospective giver. The program “El amor nos une,” or “Love will unite us,” lets those who are tired of or uncomfortable with cash donations give coupons instead. The coupons, which the recipient can redeem for food, can be purchased at grocery stores throughout the city. Similar programs exist in Colombia and are planned for Chile.

In UK begging is illegal under the Vagrancy Act of 1824. However it does not carry a jail sentence and is not well enforced in many cities, although since the Act applies in all public places it is enforced more frequently on public transport.

If you are interested in this problem read the article about helping without giving money - http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/07/08/10-ways-you-can-help-street-children-without-giving-money

Do you support beggars on the street? Maybe you have idea how the goverment should deal with that problem?