Apropos to ‘Child begging -- a question of Justice’ in The Goan Everyday, dated April 27, 2022, the author Ranjan Solomon needs to be commended for writing an eye-opener. It is indeed a heartbreaking sight to see children begging. Children begging at traffic signals, at railways ticket booking counters, on the streets just about anywhere is a common sight in cities like Mumbai. These children tug at the heartstrings and people dip their hands into their pockets and drop a few coins into the palms of their little hands. They feel good that they have done a good deed by their act of charity. Come to think of it, was it a good deed? We need to look at a begging child from a different perspective.
Giving alms to beggars whether they are children or adults, is only going to encourage them further. Those little children ought to be in school instead of stretching out their arms for money. The government needs to take a closer look at this menace of begging on the whole.
Instead of directing their time, money and energy on non-issues like naming/renaming of roads, hijab, halal, etc., it needs to look deeper into why people are begging. Oh, perhaps I’m asking for too much.
