do you give a child in india 'one pen'?

beach

Yes. There is a difference between the beggars and kids pestering for ‘pen’. I have been addressing the former.

To answer the question asked about the cost, you can get the cheapest (in the world!) pens in India. On the streets you can see people sell this as vegetables for as low as 20 ball pens for a USD! Popularly sold pens cost about rs10 a piece.

Me bought a packet of 5 pens for rs15 last week from a bus vendor. Yes. They do get inside a bus ready for departure and give a sales talk cum demonstration.

Its not because that I wanted a cheap pen. But I liked the sales man. He had his shirt stitched with pockets from shoulder to hip. Pens of all sorts filled in them like battle armor. His sales slogan was “You can write in any language with this pen!”. I liked that.

Anyone visiting Cochin can visit the locally famous ‘Pen Doctor’. This is a shop that repairs fountain pens! There is a very narrow street connecting the Marine Drive and the Broadway. The shop is at one end of this corridor

radz

All pen talk remind me,Delhi i saw few kids yah only 7 or 8 yr rold
,traffic signals giving mony to beggers is offence now.Same begging at signals stopping too offence.So i find thes kids selling very chap pens,means of asking money .May be i was wrong,but the way they asking na "dint eat for 2 days ,plz buy"etc sob story,made me think its kind of excuse to ask money .

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Dayglowhamster

Well as far as India goes I'm now confused... Some India folk say it's awash with pens, others have the feeling a lack of a pen can mean no school.

If you ever pop over to Sri Lanka though trust me bad pens are cheap, good pens are expensive - all pens are needed! The best thing about taking them in bulk is that you don't wind up walking round with them. I still treat beggers with human respect but the pens are just a gift ('don't thank me, thank the exchange rate!) - no-one has to beg for them!

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Merchant

Some schools in India pass on all costs of materials to the families as a condition of the child's attendance. Uniforms are usually the big item (i.e., the child can't attend class unless the parents purchase a uniform). Same goes for pens and paper, slates, etc. In some areas you might find kids who truly, truly need a pen--but has been pointed out, pens cost nothing in India.

If you want to take a box of pens, notebooks, and other supplies to a school in India, I'm sure it would be most appreciated.

India, by the way, is awash in cheap crap from China, all those plasticky toys, pens, nail clippers, noisemakers--the stuff pedalled in Chinatowns and in train stations throughout the world. Any child who needs a pen could easily get one.

I submit again that the Pen Phenomenon is just a way to talk to the stranger, not to solicit any actual alms.

Tomi

Thanks, Merchant, for bringing up an interesting point I hadn't thought of. I try not to get mad at children who beg or ask for onepen, and this helps me.

I concur with many of the comments above, about the difficult balance between encouraging the begging and helping out. And about our consciences and responsibilities. But for me, the onepen children have simply been a small manifestation of the phenomenon of skewing the economy towards people who live off tourists. Little people who mean well, in this case, but some of whom could be forever changed for the worse by these types of encounters with gift-wielding foreigners.

And there's another important way to look at it.

We have to thinks of ourselves, and that it is a tiny bit selfish, yes, but realistic. It may sound cruel, but we ultimately travel in India to enjoy, not to help children, and begging children can be a major nuisance everywhere. I remember being relaxed, in the zone, as I walked out to the tip of Rameswaram island towards the Hanuman rocks and Sri Lanka, enjoying the peace, and arriving at a small village being accosted by onepen-asking children. Maybe with Merchant's advice I will be able to look at them differently, let's hope.

You could say that wherever we go we need to give as well as receive, and I agree. But for many of us, and this has been admitted on this India-lovers forum many times, India is always walking the thin line between a truly fascinating place, unique in the world, and too many annoyances to be worth it. Not to be able to enjoy children, and engage them and help them in other ways, is a major problem for us and for tourism in general.

villavic

The only place I was asked for (real) pens was in my country, Peru, in the most unexpected place.

I was crossing the Andes chain mountains, in the middle of nowhere, near a lagoon where a little indian girl asked me for pens. I've stopped to take pics at a lagoon near the snowy peaks. It was 4000 meters over the sea level.

I was shocked she asked for pen or pencils, not for coins. There were only rustic shacks, no buildings nor schools. I was sad I didn't have any pen to give.

Beggars around the world varies. In Lima at semaphores they ask you to wash your window. In NY black guys they didn't even ask, but throw the water and soap along the glass, no time to answer NO!

I don't like to give money, at first maybe once but after 4 or 5 times daily at each semaphore (believe me, that's Lima) you get tired.

In Europe I was harassed by gypsies. I didn't like it and actually was afraid of thieves, you never know if they ask you or want to steal.

I don't know what to expect in India, I'm a bit afraid of thieves.

moosone

This 'one pen' demand that you encounter stems from the fascination we in India have for things 'foreign'. and though many of these 'foreign' products are available in India, it's still socially elevating to receive something from a 'foreigner'. Obviously it does not cost a 'foreigner' much to part with a pen, while the receipient finds it easy to flaunt this proof of his/ her interaction with a 'foreigner'. And everyone's happy

Incidentally, the pen and books may have been given to community leaders, who would in all probability have pocketed it or passed it on to their children - whether deserving or not. the best thing to do - if you want to hand out pens - is to give it to those who ask for it. Better still donate money to orgnisations like CRY (www.cry.org) that works with children in India. You could also try Room to Read - who are not yet in Inida, but work in Nepal.

Similarly, most children begging on the streets are part of a well-organised begging business - something that would give Fortune 500 companies a complex!!

Most often none of the money you give a beggar goes to the individual. it goes to the gang bosses. So if you really want to help a beggar give him/ her some food - a packet of biscuits, a warm meal, a loaf of bread - and a Ruppe or two. That was you help them get a good meal and also help them do their 'job'!!!

Dayglowhamster

These are people I know! And NO they don't just pocket the pens or books!! Do you seriously think that only westernised charities are respectable or honest? I bet you haven't the first idea what they do for there own communities. To fill you in - it goes well beyond a few measley pens!!

These aren't cheesey tourists giving a little to plump their own egos. They've helped their own communities year in, year out. The RESPECTED community leaders aren't always the ones in office or official roles. BUT it's not hard to hear the same names come up over and over again as people who consistantly help!

How can you go through life believing that there are no LOCALS who do far more for their own people than we ever will?

moosone

Quote:
"These are people I know! And NO they don't just pocket the pens or books!! Do you seriously think that only westernised charities are respectable or honest? I bet you haven't the first idea what they do for there own communities. To fill you in - it goes well beyond a few measley pens!!"

Well if you know them i suppose it ends the possibility that the pens measly or otherwise gets to the deserving.

And if you have gone through my post carefully, you will find i DO NOT say WESTERNISED charities are the best. CRY, for instance, is as homegrown as they get.

The point i make, and stick by, is that you can also help by giving books, pens, whatever directly to the peopel around and you don't HAVE to give them to 'respected people'.

And i do not go through "life believing that there are no LOCALS who do far more for their own people than we ever will". It's just that as i LIVE here and spend vast amounts of time working with people across the country, I'm not so generous with my belief in the genuiness of everyone i come across.

There are people who really work for their community, but then i find them few and far between. the majority of the community leaders - even the one's without official positions- most often have their own agendas!

You can fault me for that, but then that's the perspective you have from within

Dayglowhamster

I was talking about Sri Lanka (which is made very clear in earlier posts) is that where you live?

My point was that the only things you knew about these people was that they were respected, played a lead role in their community and their RACE (which I think you may have mistaken).

You didn't ask why I trusted them, you didn't suggest their dishonesty as a possibility, neither of which would have worried me. You just jumped to the conclusion "in all probability" they are out for themselves.

I'm certainly not against people giving to charity but I am against people jumping to conclusions without even having the curiosity to ask first. Wherever you live I find that sad.

moosone

I guess if you were 'CURIOUS' enough to know where i live all it would take was a shift of the eyes to the 'LOCATION' line on the top left corner of each post or perhaps you are not curious enough to do that? pretty sad huh!!

anyway, my experiences have been rather different from yours leading me to conclusions that are different from yours - lucky you poor ol me!

as they say on MTV India yenjoy...

Dayglowhamster

Of course you come to your own conclusions about the people you know - but why the hell generalise across a whole continent?

How much faith can anyone have in the conclusions you've drawn where you live when you seem to require such little information in the first place?

"You can fault me for that, but then that's the perspective you have from within"

On that score I think you hit the nail right on the head!

BTW - you can't see the profile box on the full reply page.

SitaParityaga

I work in the field of psychiatry, and we get loads of free pens with various antipsychotic medications advertised on them. Some of them had little planes on them (for jet lag medication) or soccer balls (for the hyperactive). I saved these pens up for a year just to give away. I sure hope I haven't upset the delicate balance of the universe by giving all those pens away.

Ben

NOW I know why everybody is asking for a pen - thanks edsita!

iqbal

In Kerala we were often asked for 'one pen' by children. Instead of giving pens away, we decided to respond by asking the children for 'one pen' in Malayalam. Why not join in? This exchange was a lot of fun for us and for the kids as well.

I don't speak Malayalam, but Ed, our boat captain, was good enough to teach us a few phrases. In fact a few times my mangled Malayalam translated to 'one girl' rather than 'one pen' which was very funny.