India is a home of beggars. In no other country you will find so many beggars. The reason is that begging is a profession in India. Many of the beggars are beggars by birth. They do not like to change,their profession. They make their living with ease.
All beggars are an object of pity. They wear rags. Some are seen in a loin-cloth. They go about from place to place on the daily rounds. They are very persistent. Some wear lose clothes. They cover their bodies with ashes. They have long matted hair. Some of them are really disabled. Some are crippled and blind. They deserve our help and sympathy. Some beggars wear oiled rags around their legs. They pretend to be crippled.
The beggar is usually quite clever and even cunning. He has many ways and means of begging. He may go about as a pretended sadhu. He keeps a bowl in his hand and chants a few blessings. He deceives the ladies; he may sing some holy songs on his musical instrument. Then he is sure of a good living. The children and women welcome such type of beggars. If he has a good voice, he earns a lot.
The beggar may sit just by the roadside. He may pretend to be deaf and blind. If he is actually blind, he may beg in the name of blindness. Thus he raises pity of people. In some cases he may have a child or two who are clad in dirty rags. They cry and weep as if they were very hungry.
The people in India are religious minded. The Hindus believe in the rebirth of soul after death. They think if they do good acts, God would be pleased with them and He would send them to visit this world as men. The Muslims believe that if they would do good to their fellow beings they would be sent to Jannat (paradise) on the Day of Judgment. People can get bread, flour and money without doing anything. So they like to be beggars.
Besides these ordinary beggars there are religious beggars. The Muslim beggars are called faquirs. The Hindu beggars are called Sadhus. Some of these Faquirs and Sadhus are very pious and learned. They have given up everything of this world. The beggars are idlers. They cause a great loss of labour to the nation. Their manual labour could have been utilized in factories and mills. They would have produced useful work. The healthy beggars should not be given alms.
