"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime".
This is one philosophy which Indian mentality will take ages to adapt. People want "fish", "right now" and for "free".
Few of my experiences across the cities..
As i was conversing inside the car, a elderly female was constantly irritating me at the window for money. After a long 15 mins of patience, and trying to drive her away, i finally blindly pulled some 2-3 coins and pushed it across the window and continued the conversation. The reaction to the money was of utter disgust. "Ye kya diya hai ?!?". They are clearly not satisfied with the 3-4 rupees and it suddenly becomes my responsibility to raise their alms.
Another experience i had was at a tea stall near a temple. A paraplegic was wandering around the temple on a wheelchair asking for alms. When a man offered her tea, she said, "ye wale nai, wo waale stall ka chahiye! Ye paani wala hai!".
What kind of demands are we making ? And at whose mercy ?
If you speak to any beggar and ask them about how many children they have, you will never stop at two or three. The count goes on.
Now, if i know, that its difficult for my both ends to me, wouldnt i think a hundred times before making creation of another mouth which I will have to feed? But no, it becomes responsibility of the nation, not mine. My duty is only to produce.
If one actually digs into their day to day life, the man (if present) actually spends most of their income (from begging or whatever) in consuming illicit liquor and tobacco.
They eventually get different diseases due to their harmful effects, to which the goverment caters to, and then they die, leaving behind many children (who mostly turn criminals) and a homeless wife (who is taken advantage of).
This is sheer lack of planning and responsibility, out of which, none of it is taught in our schools. Family planning, finance management and how to run a family efficiently is something that our education critically lacks.
All that we are taught in our schools is "gareebon ki madat karo". By which, it is the liberty of a common man, to feel that he has washed away his sins by giving lot of money to the poor, feeding the homeless, and giving them gifts.
Now a days, its a new trend to make videos and posts out of such activities and share it.
My dear friend, you are doing more harm to the society when you distribute "free" anything.
At the same time, when maids and drivers and kachrewalis work for us, we always quarrel with them for money and most times underpay them. Why ? They are the same poor people, who have opted to work hard and earn than beg on the streets. Because we dont get moral credit for paying them their salary which we get by paying the beggars outside a temple. All thanks to our bringing up !
When i was a child, i had several demands like every other child. And my parents never denied any rational demand which was in their scope. But they would wait for an opportunity, when i would do something worth rewarding, like getting good marks in an exam, like working hard for something, like winning a sports game, or making a public speech and i would get what i wanted as a reward. Even today, when i want to ask for something, i always feel the need to do something worth being rewarded. And it is beyond my dignity to take anything from anyone for free. This is bringing up. Giving everything your child asks for, blindly is not true love. Making him feel he deserved it and he worked enough for his bread, making him self confident is true love.
These beggars are also like our country's child.
The mistake not just lies in the uneducated beggar, whose confort zone lies in walking around the streets chasing people with cars for money. It lies majorly in our politics where the politicians have habituated our people to get lots of "free stuff" and "distributing money" for getting votes. And our people are absolutely blind to this "propaganda". As long as I am benefited, as long as i get money, i am happy - is the general attitude of people. And people just cannot differentiate between giving a person cash for temporary benefit (fish) which eventually sublimates, and giving people jobs (teaching man to catch a fish) which lasts a lifetime. Immediate gratification is always more attractive than long term success.
As a child too, the partner who helps us copy and pass is always better than the teacher who boils his blood daily to teach and impart knowledge to you.
Everytime you pop money to a beggar, you have done more harm than good. You are turning them into vocational handicaps.
Instead, work hard, earn more, employ these poor and pay them well.
Teach the man to fish !
