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NEW DELHI, INDIA, June 4, 2003: Job: Sitting for six hours a day, stretching a hand out occasionally. Qualifications: None. Vacancies: Unlimited. Earnings: Uncertain. That’s the classic version of the temple beggar, widespread in India. The job, qualifications and vacancies for the metro version, widespread in Delhi, are roughly the same. The ways in which they are different from brothers in alms elsewhere are as follows: Their workplace is variable; there are weekly transfers. Earnings never fall below US$4.00, and can touch $16.00 a day. Sometimes, there is a significant perk: group housing at nominal rates. Begging is among Delhi’s most organized businesses. The weekly transfers of beggars from temple to temple are an indicator of how completely focussed they are on deriving maximum profit from your benevolence. The Social Welfare Department discovered that sets of beggars at major temples kept changing every week. Which means that a particular beggar can be at four or five different posts across the city in the course of a month. The effort, apparently, is to allow a level playing field for all members of the community, and prevent the growth of monopolies. Though beggar groups struggle to gain supremacy over a profit-earning area, it has not triggered violent crime in the past few years. “It appears there is a silent agreement between the kingpins. All work in tandem, with clearly demarcated areas of operation,” said an official. In what appears to be an organized racket, officials say, some areas have been turned into full-fledged beggar colonies. “The accommodation is provided by kingpins who claim a large portion of the beggars’ earnings,” the official said.

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