Wilsonians exhibit the truth about Mumbai’s beggars

From the outside, it looks like a slum dweller’s hut in the Wilson College campus. Step inside and you know that no poor man has ever lived there, as a little exhibition of photographs welcomes you. You know it immediately: in Bombay, nothing is what it seems.

That’s exactly the basis of a project by a group of students in Wilson College’s third year Bachelor in Mass Media course. Titled Bhagwan Ke Naam Pe De De, the project aims at knocking the wind out of Mumbai’s charitable nature to beggars.

The exhibits inside the hut are photographs clicked by group members Pratyush Shukla and Sukruti Stanley, who travelled across the city to capture moments where beggars have been found taking drugs or smoking marijuana — some right outside civic headquarters and police stations.

“Don’t give them money. Instead give them food, clothing or a job instead,” says Andrea Carnelio, a member of the group. “This is what they do when they get money.”

Carnelio’s argument is based on the state government’s estimate of 3 lakh beggars in Mumbai who collectively pocket Rs180 crores annually, therefore encouraging many to join the ‘begging business’ and later using the money to buy drugs, alcohol and cigarettes.

The students also came across a study done by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), where it was  proven that beggars today do not beg for survival alone, but as a profession.

“The situation has become such that beggars encourage their children to enter the profession as well. It is an organised trade,” says Ekta Kudale, another group member.

Carnelio cites instances of several beggars. 60-year-old Maulana for example, has assets worth Rs 30 lakh in properties alone, but his earnings as a beggar contribute about Rs 1,000 - Rs 1,500 on a daily basis. He stands outside upmarket restaurants frequented by TV stars in Lokhandwala.

Then there’s Bharat Jain, who reaches CST every morning in plain clothes and changes into a beggar’s attire to pocket Rs2000 to Rs2500 by late evening.

“We realised that if we find a way to stop people from giving them small change, they might be dissuaded from begging,” says Kudale. “By discouraging their habit of begging due to no income, they might resolve to adopt safer opportunities not only for themselves, but also for their children.”

For this initiative, the students have partnered with an NGO, IMCares which tries to communicate to beggars the perils of begging and the dangers it poses to themselves and their children.