Beggar; as a self-employer

Beggar’s community is not a small community and is a very well organized social network. I know that there is only a very little sociological research done to understand these communities often show some differences depending on the rank of the group they belong to.

I have read only the research analysis that the Sri Lankan Sociologists presented as books. I haven’t got any opportunity to read the rest done outside to country.  The beggars cannot be identified always as ‘poor’, if you can imagine of the amount they earn, daily, weekly, and monthly and annually but they aren’t tax payers because they have no registered companies. According to the studies so far done, there is mostly a person who provide survival opportunities to many who either don’t have any physical or otherwise ability to get a job and or for the groups socially, culturally or even politically neglected.

Who are those groups? You cannot fully or totally identify them just by viewing them from outside or talking to them for few hours. To get a holistic idea about these groups, you need to study them for a longer period of time and analyze them carefully.

What are the importance of knowing them or studying them thoroughly?

If the governments / international organizations dealing with eradicating poverty, solving social or cultural issues it is important for them to pay attention to each and every facet of the existing , socially or politically, culturally apparent issues, implement accurate sustainable solution plans, to get fullest results at the end, I believe.

If you see more people begging at public places, what are the ways that the outsiders weigh them at very first glances? They might weigh them as socially disturbing groups or very importantly as part of obvious political or obvious local admin issue, perhaps as facts related to ‘polices of local governments’. None cannot be blamed for such judgments of outsiders because very often they weigh or measure them just by looking at things from surface level not from any deep levels.

·         Every poor is not a beggar.  

·         Every beggar is not a rich, self-employer/employee.

I do not like to analyze it as an urban sector issue either.

·       Beggars are a buy product of a mass or massive issue (product of pre and post-colonial administration mechanism, global policies, international attitudes towards some issues regional and strategies so far established, used, implemented as solutions)  

·       They are a group not very well recognized or identified as important part of an issue of the inserted or enclosed or not inserted, sentences of constitutions, amendments, and acts.

·      It is not always an issue specific only to racial, regional, continental, colour oriented or language oriented a matter of geographical, zonal land ownership but global that need careful attention and an issue to be solved as immediately as possible.

The poor have their own strategies of living or surviving you cannot say that they always follow or use the mechanisms introduced by local governments, for i.e. saving money through somewhat or very well organized samitees (CBO level / village level groups), small group activities.

Below, I can recognize as some of the strategies they follow.

·         Skipping meals as a coping strategy.

·         Borrowing money either from local money lenders, or from relatives,

·         Buy daily necessities/ needs on credit from local boutiques.

·         Seeking for external sources of money.

·         Stop sending their children to tuition classes as it has become a socially or educationally important or essential/ a must thing to do.

·         Depends on social or charity or welfare donations, services (using free health care facilities, libraries etc.)

·         Visit cheap markets.

·         Buy cheap clothes (used or pre-worn)

·         Trying to find jobs before completing formal education.

·         Delay marriages/pregnancies (pregnancies mainly due to bondages of employments)

What are the apparent characteristics of such groups?

·   Suffer from malnutrition/ poor mental health due to social, economic, political oppression, avoidance (depression, aggressive behavior) personal level of debts, and unequal distribution or abilities of obtaining of existing resources (land , housing due to the economic group they belong to)

·         No white collar jobs or highly paid salaries

·         Issues related to pregnancies for delaying marriages for example. etc.

·         What are the social issues a person can imagine of?

·   Theft and number increase of dangerous drug addiction (dangerous drugs were introduced to these groups mostly as a mode to earn peace of mind/ a way to forget day today social or economic issues)

Can any local administration solve such issues just by electing new government always or every five years?

Just pleasing citizens or voters by mind blowing speeches?

Banning them entering public places (i.e. railway station) begging can you solve this issue?

Can creating movies addressing such issue solve the issue other than forwarding the attention of the relevant to the issue? (Address neah (no address), slum dog millionaire, karka mutti (crow’s eggs) and or composing colonial songs about poverty about and just by organizing global summits and seminars?

The answer is NO, According to what I believe.  

Then what are the solutions that can be implemented, introduced to tackle such social or economic or political issues? 

Some of the ways i can think of are mentioned below to scholars to comment. 

·    By changing, removing or deleting existing POLICIES (both local and international) that support or nourish or improve sustainability of such issues. (take above mentioned as sources of information providing facts)

·  Educate effectively every person employed of relevant authorities, department, ministries, citizens about the policies strategies, plans etc.

·   Change mind set of local members of parliament, local citizen representatives and allow them to spend more time with each sector people without sitting at offices planning or thinking about mechanism.

·         Get or collect information, advises from every possible scholars, individual.

·         Listen to what citizens say during their meal times.

·    Read newspapers ( written aimed at economic and political issues, they play an important role in revealing such issues) research findings of research organizations, scholars etc.

May every government of the world current and to be elected or selected in the future get wisdom every time they require them to solve every existing issue local and global. 

Thank you for reading.