Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Apr 22, 2015 3:25:47 GMT 5.5
Earlier today Slate ran an article by Jillian Keenan on the issue of beggary, focusing on India's. While it is one informed by data collected by national and international bodies, the article fails to understand the basic reality of this issue and is guided by the cruel, widespread assumption that beggary is an organized form of business run by some selfish bodies.
This misunderstanding needs to be corrected immediately, and I wrote this piece.
This misunderstanding needs to be corrected immediately, and I wrote this piece.
This article, like most of those that seem to claim (if not pretend) to know the last thing about this issue, says nothing to have made its writing really necessary, but it rather gets stuck in the very old, tired widespread assumption and too fast generalization that beggary is an organized business.
Not giving money is not going to help: it will rather have a killing effect. While I love Indira Gandhi for most of what she did, I "hate" her for making the homeless lives on the streets illegal. I will continue to give them money and food, but I know even if all Indians and the whole world join me in giving them food and money every day, that will not solve this problem. But not giving anything to them to let them die from starvation in the streets like dogs and rats...that is not something humane. Think for your own clear conscience, mental peace, and your humanity, if nothing else and you don't want it to happen.
It is not that these children are bunking classes. No, they are not admitted to any school. You cannot think of that because the families these children come out from (except for the very few trafficked ones--you better not conflate them if you want sincerely to deal with this issue) form a trapped economic class who have lived generations and generations on the streets in all seasons, with no way up, no way out, and no hope. Trapped in the economic system. They have no chance.
If you say they don't want to work, well what are they going to do? What job? And who are going to employ them, even for a few hours. Never imagine a regular one. Everybody wants their job done well, and that requires people who can give at least a decent delivery which comes only with training and/or experience. In this regard, these street people are just better than other creatures they live with on the streets such as street dogs, and rats, just because they are biologically humans and they can speak a language that enables them to communicate with us. Moreover, nobody trusts them and you never employ anybody you don't trust. You don't want to run the risk of yourself getting robbed. You suspect or imagine such things even if they may not happen. So, they have no chance--nobody gives them a chance. No work. It is not that they are lazy.
Moreover, they do not have an address. They do not have their identity we recognize as valid. Without identity cards even the least organized manual labor work forces in the Indian railway stations don't open the door to these people. In fact, most of them don't even know their surnames. Such things don't matter much to them. Most of them have families not in the sense we understand by the term.
Slums people and the homeless on the streets are a penniless economic class. Even those in slums are better off than those on the streets. The latter form the lower strata in this economic class. Being a class, they have lived in that condition through generations. It is not business. It is pure life stripped off all coverings we think essential and fashionable.They live pure, bare, sheer life, and there can be nothing worse than this possible in life. No more space in this bare life for anything worse.
Yes, some subhuman beasts in the biological form of humans cash in on this. But that is a parasite on this larger problem. And so you cannot create a synecdoche out of this. That is unfair. If you don't understand the whole thing, you better remain silent and that saves a lot. To help ourselves understand this deceptive "business" problem as it is, let's ask ourselves: Can those hidden businessmen trap us into that business as their beggars? The answer is a RESOUNDING NO. But how these unfortunate lots got trapped. Because they are vulnerable, but we are not. Why vulnerable? Yes, there lies the answer, follows this line of questioning, and we will get to the root of this.
I will continue to give them food and money even if the government who seems to be a cognitive miser all the time has made it illegal to do so though I know the situation is not going to change even if the whole world join and give them food and money everyday. As the old Chinese saying goes, you give a poor man a fish and he has food for the day; you teach him how to catch fish, you give him a lesson that will give him food a whole lifetime.
It is wrong to make street lives illegal instead of doing things to help these lives and solve this problem, which is ours ultimately. They should make policies to help these people out of this trap of fate forever, which include building homes for these people, registering them as citizens like the rest of us, giving them very special basic manual jobs they can do by way of training, building special schools for their children, close and periodical but humane monitoring of the progress, making sure they don't leave their home and come back into the streets, and so on. Meanwhile, the government should also track and punish those who are abusing part of this vulnerable population as their business force.
It is easier said than done, but this is doable, though it is going to be challenging in many ways. We can gradually channelize and guide them into normal, civilized life in twenty or thirty years, and then they will be able to support themselves. This is a noble act. Nobility apart, it is worth doing.
It is committing murder to make it illegal to give the street people food or money without making a sustainable arrangement to lift them out of this trap.
Not giving money is not going to help: it will rather have a killing effect. While I love Indira Gandhi for most of what she did, I "hate" her for making the homeless lives on the streets illegal. I will continue to give them money and food, but I know even if all Indians and the whole world join me in giving them food and money every day, that will not solve this problem. But not giving anything to them to let them die from starvation in the streets like dogs and rats...that is not something humane. Think for your own clear conscience, mental peace, and your humanity, if nothing else and you don't want it to happen.
It is not that these children are bunking classes. No, they are not admitted to any school. You cannot think of that because the families these children come out from (except for the very few trafficked ones--you better not conflate them if you want sincerely to deal with this issue) form a trapped economic class who have lived generations and generations on the streets in all seasons, with no way up, no way out, and no hope. Trapped in the economic system. They have no chance.
If you say they don't want to work, well what are they going to do? What job? And who are going to employ them, even for a few hours. Never imagine a regular one. Everybody wants their job done well, and that requires people who can give at least a decent delivery which comes only with training and/or experience. In this regard, these street people are just better than other creatures they live with on the streets such as street dogs, and rats, just because they are biologically humans and they can speak a language that enables them to communicate with us. Moreover, nobody trusts them and you never employ anybody you don't trust. You don't want to run the risk of yourself getting robbed. You suspect or imagine such things even if they may not happen. So, they have no chance--nobody gives them a chance. No work. It is not that they are lazy.
Moreover, they do not have an address. They do not have their identity we recognize as valid. Without identity cards even the least organized manual labor work forces in the Indian railway stations don't open the door to these people. In fact, most of them don't even know their surnames. Such things don't matter much to them. Most of them have families not in the sense we understand by the term.
Slums people and the homeless on the streets are a penniless economic class. Even those in slums are better off than those on the streets. The latter form the lower strata in this economic class. Being a class, they have lived in that condition through generations. It is not business. It is pure life stripped off all coverings we think essential and fashionable.They live pure, bare, sheer life, and there can be nothing worse than this possible in life. No more space in this bare life for anything worse.
Yes, some subhuman beasts in the biological form of humans cash in on this. But that is a parasite on this larger problem. And so you cannot create a synecdoche out of this. That is unfair. If you don't understand the whole thing, you better remain silent and that saves a lot. To help ourselves understand this deceptive "business" problem as it is, let's ask ourselves: Can those hidden businessmen trap us into that business as their beggars? The answer is a RESOUNDING NO. But how these unfortunate lots got trapped. Because they are vulnerable, but we are not. Why vulnerable? Yes, there lies the answer, follows this line of questioning, and we will get to the root of this.
I will continue to give them food and money even if the government who seems to be a cognitive miser all the time has made it illegal to do so though I know the situation is not going to change even if the whole world join and give them food and money everyday. As the old Chinese saying goes, you give a poor man a fish and he has food for the day; you teach him how to catch fish, you give him a lesson that will give him food a whole lifetime.
It is wrong to make street lives illegal instead of doing things to help these lives and solve this problem, which is ours ultimately. They should make policies to help these people out of this trap of fate forever, which include building homes for these people, registering them as citizens like the rest of us, giving them very special basic manual jobs they can do by way of training, building special schools for their children, close and periodical but humane monitoring of the progress, making sure they don't leave their home and come back into the streets, and so on. Meanwhile, the government should also track and punish those who are abusing part of this vulnerable population as their business force.
It is easier said than done, but this is doable, though it is going to be challenging in many ways. We can gradually channelize and guide them into normal, civilized life in twenty or thirty years, and then they will be able to support themselves. This is a noble act. Nobility apart, it is worth doing.
It is committing murder to make it illegal to give the street people food or money without making a sustainable arrangement to lift them out of this trap.