It may appear most demeaning, but begging trade is a profession to many
Chennai: With untidy clothes, worn out glasses indicating his blindness and a piteous body gesture, Devaraj is not a stranger for those who travel on EMU trains.
He revealed his name only after deep thought. He has chosen two busy railway stations – Guindy and T Nagar – for seeking alms. His schedule to beg is same on all days: 9 am to 12 pm at T Nagar station and 6 pm to 10 pm at Guindy. And what does he do in the afternoon? He works in a cover manufacturing company.
In a survey conducted by the social work students of Madras School of Social Work along with this correspondent from Deccan Chronicle, many such shocking facts were unearthed.
Over 90 per cent of the beggar fraternity is fake. They play with the emotions of children and uninformed youth. Setting aside self-respect, most of them indulge into cheap tricks to earn easy money.
Asked on what forced him into beggary, Devaraj replied in a monosyllable: ‘Poverty’. “I earn a meagre amount of Rs 570 per week. But, through begging I earn over Rs 1,200 a day. How can I pay the house rent of Rs 5,000 per month?” he asks, while requesting the crowd for money. But, when the students insisted on talking to the owner, he simply refused. When asked if he would want a better job, he said, “I want a government job. Nothing else” This proves how genuine his story is.
In another interesting revelation, an 80-year-old senior citizen who stays in Tambaram hires an auto to travel to and fro to Tambaram Railway station. He spends as much as Rs 200 per day on travel. Introducing himself as Kannaya, he said, “I earn a minimum of Rs 1,000 a day. I am deaf and old. You cannot expect me to work now.”
The auto driver who regularly drops Kannaya also defended his act as he said “I have been his driver for more than a year now. Why stop him, when he is good at it.”
The scope for the begging business in Chennai is a familiar one among the beggar community as migrants from Andhra Pradesh and Bihar occasionally visit the city to make ready money.
A group of beggars from Chittoor spend two weeks in happening places of Chennai - T Nagar, Parrys Corner and Egmore - and go home with money sufficient for the whole month. “I can’t do tough jobs. This is something that needs a bit of talent,” a migrant beggar, with her face draped in a shawl, allegedly told K.M. Priyanka, a social work student.
It is also the element of self-respect that prevents beggars from begging in their neighborhood, said R. Swathikka, who was also part of the survey. “They make sure they are not recognised. Even though the family members are aware of their disrespectful profession, in most cases, relatives and neighbours are not told. It is to uphold the image that they beg at least 30 kilometers away from their residences,” said J. Evangeline Peral, another student.
