It was my last day of holidays in beautiful, subtle and fast moving capital. My journey from Safdarjung Enclave to Paharganj side of the station in youth public transport -Autorickshaw was a memorable one and left a deep imprint on my heart.
My eyes got struck on a very young girl putting her hands in dirty sweat shirt pockets to resist the chilling weather of late December near India gate crossing and she looked dazed. I assumed the loss of direction as a reason to be confused, but later discovered a voice coming somewhere from behind and cleared all my doubts and presumptions. A group of poor ladies sitting in the left pavement of the crossing screamed 'maang'. A 5 year old poor girl was getting trained to beg on the red light by a mixed group of elder girls and ladies. The little poor fellow didn't know the next step after begging in front of an Esteem Car. The voice came again at a much higher volume and she begged in the next car. After reaching to the group of ladies, she was beaten up by one of those and she started crying silently.
The touching moment didn't end here itself. My autorickshaw moved a bit ahead and she came again to beg in front of me. Her tears vanished within 10 seconds and mine started to flow out. I was flabbergasted to see how tears of a small girl vanish within 10 seconds and how strong she was made by begging on these streets.
On the way back to IIT Kharagpur via Rajdhani Train, the whole scene haunted me and provoked me to think. First thing to hit my gray cells was a bollywood movie 'Traffic signal' truely depicting the same story witnessed by me. It touched me even more after i reconciled the whole story.
It was in the past, when beggars used to beg to fulfill their basic needs. After realization of the fact that Indian sentiments and emotions led them earn a lot of money, many poor entered this field. Even this was not enough, and big people realized this untapped sector and made this business very well governed by marketing, distribution and demand-supply models of business. All red lights and traffic signals were scanned by beggars and hawkers. The demand increased with a huge expansion in the market and so did the supply making India a country of most number of beggars in the world. Even the famous video on YouTube - 'a girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes' had a girl describing India with beggars when it came to global concerns.
If, we the people of India, don't realize it today that if we all stop giving money to beggars the demand -supply model will crash and beggars will be free from people running this business and controlling them.
By the way, on the next red light, i saw a small boy selling Harvard Business Review edition for Rs. 450!!!
My eyes got struck on a very young girl putting her hands in dirty sweat shirt pockets to resist the chilling weather of late December near India gate crossing and she looked dazed. I assumed the loss of direction as a reason to be confused, but later discovered a voice coming somewhere from behind and cleared all my doubts and presumptions. A group of poor ladies sitting in the left pavement of the crossing screamed 'maang'. A 5 year old poor girl was getting trained to beg on the red light by a mixed group of elder girls and ladies. The little poor fellow didn't know the next step after begging in front of an Esteem Car. The voice came again at a much higher volume and she begged in the next car. After reaching to the group of ladies, she was beaten up by one of those and she started crying silently.
The touching moment didn't end here itself. My autorickshaw moved a bit ahead and she came again to beg in front of me. Her tears vanished within 10 seconds and mine started to flow out. I was flabbergasted to see how tears of a small girl vanish within 10 seconds and how strong she was made by begging on these streets.
On the way back to IIT Kharagpur via Rajdhani Train, the whole scene haunted me and provoked me to think. First thing to hit my gray cells was a bollywood movie 'Traffic signal' truely depicting the same story witnessed by me. It touched me even more after i reconciled the whole story.
It was in the past, when beggars used to beg to fulfill their basic needs. After realization of the fact that Indian sentiments and emotions led them earn a lot of money, many poor entered this field. Even this was not enough, and big people realized this untapped sector and made this business very well governed by marketing, distribution and demand-supply models of business. All red lights and traffic signals were scanned by beggars and hawkers. The demand increased with a huge expansion in the market and so did the supply making India a country of most number of beggars in the world. Even the famous video on YouTube - 'a girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes' had a girl describing India with beggars when it came to global concerns.
If, we the people of India, don't realize it today that if we all stop giving money to beggars the demand -supply model will crash and beggars will be free from people running this business and controlling them.
By the way, on the next red light, i saw a small boy selling Harvard Business Review edition for Rs. 450!!!
