From Begging to Books in Bodhgaya India

Greetings to you all, from Bodhgaya India

"Begging is not an act of kindness . It’s only human to feel that impulse to help — to give a few coins to alleviate another’s misery — and, all too often, for that impulse to override the quiet voice which asks: am I really helping?

The answer is no.

Giving to a beggar might momentarily salve the donor’s conscience, but in the longer term it does absolutely nothing to alleviate the plight of the recipient.

On the contrary, it locks the beggar in a downward spiral of abject dependency and victimhood, where all self-respect, honesty and hope are lost.

Indeed, by reinforcing the beggar’s pitiable condition, a donation is really an act of cruelty rather than kindness. If there is one thing most beggars detest more than people who refuse to give, it is those who do"

These are the words of John Bird, an ex homeless man and ex beggar in the UK who set up the magazine the Big Issue a magazine for homeless people to sell on the streets and move from begging to self employment .

Of course this programme is about alleviating and ultimately preventing child begging in Bodhgaya, even with our limited resources. 

 This is from an article by jillian keenan on www.slate com.

Tourists should never give money to child beggars we meet abroad. Not even the cute ones. Not even the disabled ones. Not even the ones who want money for school. Don't give them money, or candy, or pens. It's not generous. In fact, it's one of the most harmful—and selfish—things a well-meaning tourist can do.

Many travelers already know that when we give money (or gifts that can be resold, such as pens), we perpetuate a cycle of poverty and give children a strong incentive to stay out of school. You also may already know that giving candy to children in some areas of the world actually causes enormous suffering, since many communities do not have the resources to treat tooth decay. But the reasons to never, ever give to child beggars go much deeper than that. Organized begging is one of the most visible forms of human trafficking—and it's largely financed and enabled by good-hearted people who just want to help.

In India, roughly 60,000 children disappear each year, according to official statistics. (Some human rights groups estimate that the actual number is much higher than that.) Many of these children are kidnapped and forced to work as beggars for organized, mafia-like criminal groups. According to UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, and the U.S. State Department, these children aren't allowed to keep their earnings or go to school, and are often starved so that they will look gaunt and cry, thereby eliciting more sympathy—and donations—from tourists. And since disabled child beggars get more money than healthy ones, criminal groups often increase their profits by cutting out a child's eyes, scarring his face with acid, or amputating a limb. In 2006, an Indian news channel went undercover and filmed doctors agreeing to amputate limbs for the begging mafia at $200 a pop. (Who knows how the little boy I met in New Delhi lost his legs.) To prevent the children from running away, traffickers often keep kids addicted to opium or other drugs.

So what are we doing? 

Firstly we have staff monitoring the situation here in Bodhgaya offering support to children found begging , and talking to their families, we are arranging admission in schools. We are working  with the police and the District Child protection committee (of which we are a member) and the child labour department whose job it is to rehabilitate child beggars, (but have no resources to do it) , and we use our centre at Rescue Junction and work with the child welfare committee (which is based at Rescue Junction) ,to help provide alternatives for beggars  including vocational training. 

We really do need your support for this and that is why the appeal is still ongoing on GlobalGiving and may well continue because the need is so great .

I thank you for all your support so far and in our next report we will have examples and comments from some of the children and families taken off the street and into education as a result of this programme.

Deepak Kumar

Chairperson

People First Educational Charitable Trust

Links:

• Project can be found here in Global Giving
• Please like us!