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[lucinate]

Since visiting extremely poverty stricken places like India and Bangladesh, a fair few people have asked how I've coped with the beggars and what I do. Do you give them money, buy them food or clothes or ignore them?

Alot of travel advisory information tells us not to give anything to beggars. In some countries, there is alot of organised begging with 'pimps' bussing in children and mothers with babies to beg from unsuspecting tourists then pocketing the earnings and giving very little back to the 'beggars'.

In Siem Reap, Cambodia, kids beg at the food stalls along the streets. We watched a tourist couple buy dinner for a little boy who promptly had it take away, ran over to his parents who were holding shopping and they all rode off on a motorbike.

In Myanmar we saw tourists practically mauled when they tried to give children pens or biscuits.

What's right and what's wrong?

How do you cope and what do you do?

[uncle_davros]

I agree with what you are saying Paul. When we were in Kathmandu, there were all these little 8 or 9 year olds, running around sniffing glue !!! Hard to believe, but wait till you get there and see it. They were demanding money, but then there were these other kids the same age. These kids actually went to school, and once finished, they would catch a bus into Thamel where all the tourists generally hang out, and then sell stuff. We bought things off of these kids and we use to feed them. They were really nice kids and we asked them about the glue sniffing ones, and their reply was, "They are bad kids, they sniff glue, we are good kids, we go to school". They were good kids, but they had to work until 21:00 everynight. We felt sorry for them, but they were happy that they were helping out their family. At least they were making an effort to contribute towards their home lives unlike the demanding glue sniffers.

I think this is one post which will roll on for a while. Yes, I have written in previous posts that I walk by, but I have also stated that I buy the Big Issue and other goods. If a beggar is willing to try and help themselves, instead of trying to scam money out of you, at least they are trying to get out of the gutter