You can't miss them. Whether in rags, or ochre robes outside temples, or with a bowl, or with a car cleaning cloth at traffic signals, they are omnipresent. We usually ignore them- or at best drop a 50p/ 1 Re coin. Do we ever think of what happens after that?
Madhur Bhandarkar's movie " Traffic Signal" has potrayed the nexus between the underworld and the beggar mafia. These people even go to the extent of maiming children to graduate them into the begging industry. Besides, we have able bodied beggars who still prefer this work to sweating out a living.
Some of you may feel- so what- that's only a buck. Poor fellow can hardly live. What we forget is some of these poor fellows have bulging bank balances and posh houses, as per a Mumbai Mirror expose.
My views are that giving books to kids or food to beggars is OK, but not cash in any form. That may go to the mafia, or even worse- to buy drugs.
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