Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull finds himself in an intriguing situation over giving alms. His act of charity has both been defended and criticised. Defended, because it was an instant human reaction. Criticised, because in Melbourne giving alms to beggars on the street is officially discouraged. Others criticised the Aussie PM for a different reason: they found the act of generosity rather "stingy". Why? Because Turnbull had given only a $5.0 note when he had a fat wad of larger notes in his other hand.
Now this is how opinions on beggary vary by a wide margin, nay, by miles. With his record of sleeping outside in the winter of Canberra to raise fund for the homeless, the Australian prime minister certainly has a point. Whenever he sees someone so wretched, according to his own admission, he considers himself blessed by God to do the generous act.
On the other hand, Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle is against this kind of charity. He too has a strong point. The point is that Melbourne provides a free meal and a bed to those in genuine need. When the city takes care of the needy, the mayor definitely has the right to ask people not to give alms. According to his view, it does not only encourage begging but also the money goes to wrong hands and for wrong purposes. "Begging money", he claims, "goes either to scammers or to buy drugs and alcohol".
The Lord Mayor is likely to be right. When the genuine homeless people have both food and shelter provided for them by the city authorities, begging by them certainly is suspect. The Salvation Army, one of the service providers, confirms that small groups of professional beggars are responsible for drawing public cynicism towards the genuinely homeless who beg in order to survive.
Finally, who thought the prime minister was miserly not to handover a note of higher denomination may have their points too if only they are more generous with beggars. But when the city authorities discourage the practice in order to bring an end to begging, how much scope is there to show generosity? This, however, did not prevent the PM to be more generous with a note of higher value.
One wishes this would be the case in Dhaka city as well. Legions of beggars come swarming from all directions when someone goes to any public place, particularly kitchen markets, shopping malls and even while walking on footpaths. Some of the beggars are used to begging in running buses, others just choose the vehicles waiting in long queues for traffic signal to turn green.
Not many of them are genuine beggars. But a few certainly are. Now the professional beggars have been adopting many ploys and playing tricks on the public to generate compassion. It is not that they are always successful. Their camouflage at times gets exposed. Even the most generous person cannot feel amused when s/he sees that a beggar is a trickster. Begging, already shorn of dignity, is meted with apathy and even scorn.
The fact that there are organised gangs who deliberately maim abducted children so that their disfigured bodies appealed to compassion of passers-by has been reported in the media several times. The Australian public does not have to deal with such a situation. Crimes of this order are unthinkable in any civilised society. Opinions on begging may vary but all are likely to be unanimous that it should be rooted out of society for good.
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