While commuting towards office a week ago, I was attracted by a success story of one Pappu Kumar, the crorepati beggar, on the first page of Deccan Herald, Bangalore edition. Out of curiosity, I started scanning the news. The deeper I went into the story the bigger my shock was. The success story of this physically challenged Pappu starts with the tragic death of his father.
Per the news, Pappu hails from a poor family in Patna, Bihar. His dream to become an engineer could not come true due to financial reasons probably. Pappu completed 12th standard with 57 per cent and secured 72 per cent in mathematics. Then to his misery, his father died and he chose to enter into (the Profession of) beggary. Now he owns 2000 square feet of land worth 1.25 crore and has 5 lakh of cash in his bank accounts— one each in State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank and Allahabad Bank. In addition, he has lent Rs 10 lakh as loan to small traders in New Market area in Patna city. Pappu is 32.
It is hard for an average office goer to save even half or rather quarter of the money saved by Pappu in his early thirties. I shared the story with my friends and colleagues to know their opinion. Most of them were of the opinion that Pappu is a millionaire only and not a respected millionaire. The combination of money with prestige and esteem is appreciable not the money alone. Also it matters the way you earned your money from. I partially agreed with them as I have a separate opinion on money and prestige. For me, money can buy each and every thing in this world including respect, prestige and even justice.
Let’s not divert from the main line.
After few days on Pappu story, I came across a news report of Hemanth Kashyap in Pune Mirror with the headline “DNA to bust beggar mafia.” The same report was published in Bangalore Mirror too with slightly different headline. The report talked about an initiative of the Bangalore City police to verify if the babies and infants being hauled around by the beggars have been kidnapped or bought. “In a massive exercise named ‘Operation Smile’, Bangalore Police plan to crack down on what is suspected to be a huge mafia at work by conducting DNA tests to verify the claims about parentage. About 500 such parents and children have already been identified and police hope to complete the process soon,” reads a paragraph of the report.
The city police believe that infants and babies are drugged with cough syrups and sleeping tablets and even injected with narcotic substances to keep them drowsy so that the adults can conveniently use them for begging. According to a police official, the begging mafias work very cunningly. Every morning, the children are taken in an auto or cab to a fixed spot. They remain there until they are picked up again in the night. Then they are taken to a well-guarded location and their day’s earnings are taken away in return of food. The police also believe that kidnapped or trafficked children are used for this purpose. There are a plenty of news items and articles on why the babies used for begging are always dowry or sleepy.
Earlier people used to beg out of some compelling reason. Now it has turned out to become a profession. Also some begging mafias, like sand and land mafias, are attracted towards this profession. They kidnap or buy in some cases children from remote areas and use them for begging. A research work of Hyderabad based sociologist, Mohammad Rafiquddin, reveals that begging is an industry of worth Rs 1.8 Billion (180 crore) and number of beggars in the country is around 73,00,000. (The report was published in October 2008 and there is no current figure available on the number of beggars in India). The study further adds that a beggar hardly spent 20 per cent of his total income on food and 30 percent on bad habits. Rest 50 per cent goes to the employer’s saving.
Begging is a growing menace in our society. The earlier it is bridled upon the better it would be for society. A two-sided cooperation between public and government is needed to eradicate beggary from the society. People must not be that generous while giving alms. For me, giving alms to an able-bodied beggar is not justified at any rate. Prof. Shanta Sinha, former chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, opines, “Instead of giving alms (to beggars), we should strive for a permanent solution to their problems and for their rehabilitation.”
This scribe must say that instead of giving money to professional beggars on railways platforms and bus stops, people should find among their neighbors and relatives who is more in need of their money than others. Also, instead of randomly wasting money on different professional beggars, one should choose at least one poor and needy people and spend on him until he is established and rehabilitated. In this case also preference must be given to neighbors and relatives. This way we can make better use of our alms or rather donations. Otherwise, we would be wasting our hard-earned money in the name of alms on crorepati and professional beggars like Pappu Kumar.
