Baby Hungry Need Some Milk Scam

ananda2193

Most likely a month. But I bet she sold the milk.

SPACEBUM

Well, frankly I don't know what should be a fair price for the milk powder. The girl looked very clean and healthy, her baby too. Didn't appear they were suffering from malnutrition. So I think they were professional beggars.

shere

Most the beggers in India are pro's.

Just steer clear from them. Giving them money just adds to the problem and they carry on with the same routine.

the opoponax

I made a rule in India.

Never give to anyone who looks clean, healthy and well-fed.

Never give to anyone wearing shoes.

Never give to a kid in a school uniform, or who is carrying a backpack.

These people are NOT beggars.

The only beggars I would give to were people so severely disabled that they obviously can't get any other work. Begging is not enjoyable enough or lucrative enough to dismember yourself over. Seriously, I've done it. I would have accepted a job cleaning toilets with a toothbrush instead.

Oh, and hijras, because there are some things I really don't need to see.

blackbird

I have pretty much the same rules, the only difference being that I also give to old women and some holy people.

A friend of mine from Puri used to regularly give money to a disabled beggar. His father got very angry with him, and in the end dragged his son to see the house where this beggar and his family lived. It was twice as big as their own house, and according to his father, the beggar was the only breadwinner in the family.

You can see why some people dismember themselves or their children -- a missing limb can be a lucrative asset....

karuna

I don't give at all now. A long slow process of elimination starting with kids, then the mothers with babies (after one nearly ripped my mother's arm off, another slapped "her" baby, and another wore a fine set of bangles on both arms), and finally disabled people. The last was the hardest, but there are jobs for disabled people out there and even if they really can't work, the money's better spent on a legit charity than on the guy's "rent" for begging in that space and whatever else he's buying with it.

Old women begging- not seen many of those, but after being told the story of the widow who begged in Connaught Place and made lakhs and lakhs and lakhs, no, not them either.

Maybe I sound callous, but not as callous as someone who'll happily charge you Rs2500 for milk she doesn't need! Find a charity that's close to your heart, and donate/volunteer.

the opoponax

Not that I'll advocate giving to these folks, but be careful with this. Bangles can be markers of caste, status, etc. and just because someone has what you'd see as 'nice' ones doesn't mean that person is necessarily wealthy. Any more than, say, someone seeing my iBook would jump to the conclusion that I'm richer than a person who uses an ordinary old Dell desktop. Which they might, but then they'd be wrong. And it would be lame for them to decide they didn't need to pay me as much, or didn't need to hire me on this job, or whatever.

Not that you should give to these folks. I'm just sayin', is all.

Personally I think it's cool that you've narrowed it down -- next time I'm looking to do the same.

blackbird

I wouldn't give to any beggar in Connaught Place or any other foreign tourist magnet.

A lot of old women in India are widows who have no support from their families and no chance of getting a job. Which doesn't mean that the ones begging fit this description, but I tend to give just in case....

To be honest Karuna, I'd rather give directly to beggars, after all the stories I've heard about charities in India.... which isn't to say there aren't good ones, but how do I know? it's as hard as identifying the genuinely needy beggars!

karuna

Crossposted- this bit's @ The Opoponax: Hmm, noted. You may be right, but I'm sceptical. This was in Agra, mind you, in a major tourist spot, not a small village where caste signs are more important and common. Certainly my Indian friends didn't seem to think it was a caste thing- they quite agreed with my assessment of her.

I believe the bangles were red, which I think traditionally is lucky for married women? I can't remember, to be honest.

Either way, for a beggar, draped in jewellery isn't a good look to increase success!

blackbird- true, but there are international charities, you could find one in the UK, and it least in principle you can research a charity. Asking a beggar to prove his/her poverty would be more difficult!

Nick-H

Well, Spacebum, we all live and learn I suppose... god knows what I gave to beggars when I first came here, or gave in tips to drivers as such when I had no idea whatsoever of the value of the rupee and the cost of living here.

The shame of it is that five hundred people could have been happy with a gift of five rupees each, and a scam like this has probably hardened your heart towards anyone who asks you for money. And that woman may have the same effect on any number of people; as such she is doing a lot of harm.

Not meaning to rub it in, but just to make you aware, there are many shop staff, and probably a lot of the workers that you meet in hotels who will be lucky to be paid that much per month.

Don't think this is a mean comment, I do give to beggars if I have small change in my pocket, but a woman with a hungry baby who needs milk? Sorry, but if she really is the mother, and she is not suffering from severe malnutrition, nature has equipped her to feed her baby herself. In fact, if anyone in the world tried this one on me, and they spoke more than three words of English, they'd get a lecture on how much better breast milk is for a baby.

It is a common scam. Another version is biscuits (maybe they try that on the women, who too obviously know about breat-feeding!).

Here is another hint: the Maximum Retail Price of all packaged items sold in India must, by law, be marked on the packet, and don't let them fool you with talk of taxes. I wonder what the real price of the milk was; the shopkeeper would have been in on the scam too.

The baby, by the way, may very well be borrowed from sister or whatever. It doesn't mean, in itself that the money is not genuinely needed by the family. But yes, it could be a supplied prop and the girls are going to see little or nothing of what they collect.

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Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

the opoponax

Well, yeah. Any healthy and clean-looking person begging is a no, regardless. And I viewed anybody approaching me about anything in Agra with a tremendous hill of salt. I'm just saying you can't really judge based on the same indicators you would back home. It's kind of the way that someone in the west wearing a gold ring on the ring finger of their left hand wouldn't be seen as 'rich' just for wearing gold jewelry. Whereas at home I refuse to so much as bum a metrocard swipe to the 'punks' whose beat up leather trench coats probably cost more than a decent used car.

Nick-H

In fact there may even be less prejudice about employing physically disabled people in india than there is in UK! The mentally disabled, however, have a very hard time of it.

That is a bit of a Sun-reader reaction; there will always be such stories, all over the world, and some of them will be true. The vast majority of beggars are not making lakhs.

Nick-H

But there are areas where I will do my very best to avoid the beggars, because it is just a profession there. Away from the tourist runs they are more likely to be genuine.

I don't like it when they line up, eg outside certain temples, for instance. Even if I'm prepared to give Rs5 to an individual, I can't do that for thirty people. My wife explained; some people going to the temple will give to everybody, but 25 or 50 paise, maybe maximum one rupee each.

karuna

I don't know if this is distinctive to Shani, but on a Saturday my friend's family go to the temple bringing food with them and give it to poor people. This seems like a good way of giving if you live there?

True.
That look, in the UK at least, would scream "dodgy geezer" to me. In India it seems to be the height of sophistication amongst a certain subset of men. Similarly with thick gold chains.

You're right, it is. I suppose it's because I have spent much of my time in the middle of Delhi where there's a heavy tourist presence, so I knee-jerk assume that these beggars must be raking it in. When I think about it Delhi's really where I've seen 95% of the beggars I've seen, followed by Dharamsala and that one lady in Agra. And then, mostly in season time. In October the gangs of women-with-babies had disappeared from Karol Bagh.

ananda2193

Exactly. I've heard that those kinds of places are controlled by the mafia. You wouldn't even be able to beg there without their permission and giving them their cut. Which is probably most of it.