Kamalakshi Amma was our immediate neighbour at Thekkepuram in Ranny in Pathanamthitta district. She was a washerwoman by profession. Her son Sasi was good at everything, except studies. He could climb the tallest tree to get hold of the Maina chicks from their nest. 

They were in great demand in the market for pets as the bird, which resembles the crow, can be trained to say a complete sentence like, “Narendra Modi is the greatest leader the world has seen”. Alas, Sasi died young while his mother died recently.

She had a relative by the name of Panicker. He was a victim of polio. I was very fond of him. He was a very knowledgeable person. He never forgot anything he read in the newspaper. He was a great raconteur of anecdotes. I remember him bringing us the news that Jawaharlal Nehru was no more.

Panicker used to help her sister in pressing clothes. He would also allow me to press the clothes. He trusted me with only banyans and vests. One day my father saw this and scolded me for it.

Panicker was called a deshadana pakshi (migratory bird). He would disappear from the village for months together and, then, suddenly reappear. He neither took away any money nor brought any to his sister’s home. Nobody knew where he spent his days. 

One theory had it that he had a secret family somewhere in Tamil Nadu. If he was asked, he would just laugh it away. What I was sure of was that he spent his days begging. He was a devotee of Murugan. Every year, he would go on pilgrimage to the Murugan Temple at Palani in Tamil Nadu.

It is the third of the six abodes of Murugan. Pilgrims to Palani are allowed to beg on the way. They can collect any amount but it has to be spent during the journey and not saved for the future. 

He would do the pilgrimage once or twice a year, taking different routes. Begging was a means of finding money for his travels. He was, otherwise, a wonderful person, full of knowledge and charm. He never spoke ill of others and was, truly, a devotee. Panicker died a bachelor and at a young age.

Once, on a visit to Tamil Nadu, I made it a point to visit the Palani temple as a tribute to Panicker. I remembered him when the subject of begging cropped up in the Supreme Court recently. 

The court has refused to accept the plea for banning begging in public places. A two-member Bench consisting of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah said the court would not take an “elitist view” and proscribe begging. The Bench was responding to a petition filed by an individual that begging in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic was injurious to public health. 

Actually, there is no conclusive evidence that persons, who beg at traffic islands and other public places, are carriers of Coronavirus and can, therefore, spread the disease. They are as good or as bad as political leaders in this regard. A meeting of ministers in Uttarakhand saw not one of them wearing a mask. What’s worse, one minister had his mask hanging from his toe. No beggar will behave in such an irresponsible manner. 

The apex court has taken the more rational stand that begging has its roots in the socio-economic and cultural situations in which they operate. The story I narrated about Panicker is a case in point. 

Every time he went to Palani, he took a small amount from my grandfather because he considered that it was a good omen. No, Panicker was not guided by the fact that my grandfather who was an ardent Orthodox Church believer would not have anything to do with the Murugan tradition. The bonhomie that existed among the people at that time overrode all religious divisions and considerations.

To return to the petition before the court, there is a strong case for rehabilitating the beggars for which the court has given a notice to the Central and Delhi governments, answerable within a fortnight. They would have to mention the steps taken to rehabilitate them and provide vaccination against Covid-19. 

In the discussions on vaccines, nobody has ever spoken about the need to vaccinate beggars. Their names may not appear in official lists. They may not even have Aadhar cards. In India, the concept is that if a person does not have an Aadhar Card, he simply does not exist. The question is who will bear the cost of vaccination of millions of beggars in the country. The Central or state governments? 

Begging is as old as humanity and it is viewed differently from culture to culture. The Buddhist tradition has it that Lord Buddha died of food poisoning when he ate the rotten pork he received as alms while he was travelling through what is now Vaishali in North Bihar. 

At the other end, the Sikhs consider begging as anathema to their religion. In fact, if a Sikh, sporting a turban and other Sikh accoutrements is seen begging, he is likely to be given a dressing-down, if not a thrashing by fellow Sikhs. 

Begging is a universal phenomenon. They can be seen in the richest countries too but the style of begging differs. I have seen in Paris, artists painting on roadsides with an open hat in front of them and musicians playing their instruments with a vessel in the front where the passersby can put money. I have also seen people stopping there to listen to their music or appreciating the way they paint with rudimentary colours. 

Though the Bible prescribes that man should live by the sweat of his brow, it also mentions the case of Lazarus, who longed to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Alms-giving was not promoted. Jesus could have performed a miracle by giving them enough fish.

Instead, he asked his disciples to spread the net in a particular area of the sea. The book also tells us that they had to strain a lot to carry the filled nets to the shore. 

Similarly, when God warned Noah about the impending deluge, he asked him to build a ship that could accommodate every species of animals, birds and plants. God wanted him to work and not expect God to provide him an INS Vikrant-like ship.

Until recently, the excommunicated like the ones suffering from leprosy had no other option but to beg. I used to see hundreds of beggars camping under the Kozhencherry bridge during the famous Maramon Christian Convention held in February every year. A majority of them were leprosy patients. 

Small wonder that the Supreme Court Bench declared, “No one would like to beg, if not for poverty”. There was force in what the court said but it was not very convincing. This is because begging is a very complex subject that cannot be explained easily, let alone tackled. There is no sure-shot remedy for a problem that has been in existence since time immemorial.

As of now, there is no Central law banning begging. However, there is a law enacted in Bombay, now Mumbai, in 1959, which has been adapted and implemented in at least 20 states and two Union Territories. In Delhi, for instance, persons giving alms to the beggars at traffic junctions and public roads and, thereby, obstructing traffic can be penalised. The fact of the matter is that no one has so far been punished for giving alms. 

During special drives, especially on the eve of visits by foreign dignitaries and national events like the Republic Day Parade, the police round up the beggars and take them to the so-called shelter homes where the living conditions are horrible. Needless to say, they invariably return to the streets, the vicinity of religious places and tourist centres to carry on their business. 

The homeless, who are not beggars, are also treated like beggars. They are often at the receiving end of the law. There are thousands of the homeless who do not have a place to call home and they, therefore, live under bridges, in pipes, on roadsides, public parks, railways and bus stations. 

During the winter, many of them die because they cannot resist the cold, especially when they fall sick. Nobody ever bothers about them. Because they do not have votes and are, therefore, not valuable to the political leaders. Of course, the police who consider that their job is to protect the interests of the rulers treat them as dirt. 

It is a misconception that all the beggars chose the profession voluntarily. There are syndicates of beggars, who are controlled by the mafia. They kidnap children, maim them and force them into begging. Such children would not even know that they are victims of the racket. The pity is that such organised racketeers, who are hand in glove with the local law-enforcing agencies, are seldom caught, let alone punished. 

More often than not, the baby in the hands of the woman begging at the traffic island is drugged and not sleeping as many might imagine. 

It is not for want of work or health that some beg. They beg because they have lost the sense of shame and find begging more lucrative. There are NGOs in Delhi which provide rose bouquets, balloons, paper napkins, books etc to the beggars so that they can sell them and make money, instead of begging. Alas, the moment a customer refuses to buy the item, he will switch to begging. 

The other day, as I was getting down from the car, a shoeshine approached me for work. I was amused because he had not seen that I was wearing a rubber chappal. The moment he realised that he could not offer his polishing service, he started telling me that he had not eaten any food that day. 

Begging has its negative implications for the country and society. Tourists are one of the worst-hit victims of begging. They are often cornered by the beggars and forced to give money. 

One can see it happen everyday in front of the curio shops on Janpath, near Connaught Place. Sometimes, even guides behave like beggars while soliciting jobs. Similarly, visitors to religious places consider them a great nuisance. I had myself been mobbed by the pandas when I visited the famous Shiva temple at Varanasi. 

Early last year when I and my wife visited a famous Muslim shrine in Delhi that attracts lakhs of people from all over North India, we were pestered so much by the beggars that we came back in disgust.

Often, beggars choose a religious attire to force the faithful to part with money. True, Dhana (alms-giving) is sanctified. Mendicants are supposed to live on charity. However, Patanjali asserts that accepting gifts is forbidden. Manu and Kautilya emphasise charity through institutions. Thus, there is scriptural sanctity for effective steps against begging. 

A new class of sophisticated beggars has also arisen. Recently, the Kerala High Court pointed towards the need to ensure that those who raise crores of rupees through crowd-funding do not misuse the money. What they do is to make an emotional video which is circulated on social media. 

Sometimes the video becomes viral. If 10,000 persons contribute Rs 1000 each, the recipient becomes richer by Rs 1 crore. There is no mechanism to monitor whether the money reached the intended beneficiaries or not. If poverty is the root cause of begging, corrective socio-economic measures can root it out. If it is the result of organised crime, it needs to be treated differently. There is no one shoe that fits all in the case of begging too!

I began this column by mentioning my friendship with a person who dabbled in begging to see the world and enjoy life in the way he wanted. I am not in a position to judge him or his conduct. 

Just before I started writing this column, I approached a person to support a project of an NGO with which I am associated. She promised me a substantial sum. I beg for a public cause and the beggars beg for a private cause. Fundamentally, we are all beggars!

ajphilip@gmail.com