We have all ?begged? at some time or the other, I guess. Some of us have begged forgiveness while others have begged for mercy. We beg for rain, electricity, small change, books etc as a matter of routine, if not for food. We also beg for love and understanding. That, I hope, makes us all beggars and unites us with those who beg for money and food. Yet, most of us abhor the idea of obliging beggars, convinced that they are undesirable elements. Most of them have connections with the underworld, claims a friend, and act as pick-pockets and informers. Others seriously believe that beggars are actually millionaires and cite newspaper clippings carrying such ?stories? as evidence. There are other friends who see no reason to give alms to ?able-bodied? men and women. They surely should be able to find suitable work for themselves, the friends feel, and stop begging.

The truth is that most of us, when we are grabbed by poor , hungry and possibly blind men or women for alms, ?feel and behave like neo-Nazis? and cry ?murder?. We defend ourselves by saying that the beggars are actually crooks who feign poverty and hunger to fleece us. We are sorry but we will not allow ourselves to be cheated, we assert firmly. There are others, more charitable souls, who toss a coin or two of usually low denominations whenever they are approached by beggars. Beggars are actually not choosers and they generally accept even a five-paise coin without a word though there are spirited souls who do let loose a torrent of invectives. On one occasion I have even seen a beggar actually add a 25-paise coin to the coin tossed to him and then contemptuously toss both the coins into a car.

It gets more difficult when women approach cars, clutching babies to their breast and pointing to their evidently pregnant belly. The incessant whining as their eyes plead to melt stonehearts, can be disconcerting. I have come across women around hospitals, who claim that they have no money to buy medicine or blood for their husband and would like you to help. It is a catch-20 situation. If you hand over a couple of hundred rupees, you feel like a fool and doubts keep nagging whether you have been taken for a royal ride. If you don?t pay up or cough up only a modest five or ten rupee note, you start feeling guilty and wonder if you are responsible for taking the life of a poor man. Very few of us take the trouble of following the lady into the hospital, ensure that her claim is correct and then make arrangements to ensure that the man gets treated properly. How many of them can you help after all? There are far too many of them, we tell ourselves.

The feeling of guilt is particularly severe when you splurge immediately after refusing a beggar. On one occasion I bought a Long-Playing Record, now extinct, priced at a princely Rs 45 those days. More recently I entertained some guests at a five-star hotel and paid through my nose for a perfectly ordinary lunch. Before both occasions I had curtly refused to cough up anything to beggars. Their faces continue to haunt me and I sometimes wonder whether they managed to collect sufficient money for a decent meal.

Governments have tried to ban begging, failing which they have banned beggars from venturing into the national capital and sensitive areas. Policemen are trained to hound them and some of the cops, one suspects, are not averse to squeeze a few Rupees even from the community of beggars. Surely there is something a little more constructive that governments can do ? Like street children, destitutes everywhere need a secure place to sleep, toilets, water to have bath and, if possible, some food.

Activist Sanat Sinha, an alumnae of the Bombay College of Social Work , had organised a similar pad for destitute children at Patna. A rented house served as the shelter and Sanat managed to provide only bananas, gram and jaggery to the children late in the afternoon. But surely the state government can build such shelters in the towns ? It would help monitor the flow of destitutes, assess the kind of work they can be assigned and also provide credible feedback about the situation in the countryside.

A tie-up with voluntary bodies, trusts and charities should be able to arrange for at least one full meal every day. For the welfare state, it should not surely be such a difficult task?

School children from urban centres should also be taken on conducted trips to watch poverty first-hand and watch beggars at work. One recalls an anonymous father claiming to have taken his own children to Brazil. ?Since then, ?he reportedly said, ?I have had no problems with my children?if I buy them anything, they are grateful.? It would be a great learning experience for children, who are both privileged and pampered, to come face to face with poverty.