No Option But To Beg
By Cassandra Mascarenhas
In the scorching heat of the midday sun in Nugegoda sits a diminutive, weather-beaten woman dressed in tatters. She holds a small child, bathed in sweat and covered in flies, next to her on the dusty pavement by a bus stop, attempting to cajole money from the passers-by who rush past her with barely a glance.
The beggar, Sandamali, is a daily fixture there with her children and her cloth-wrapped parcels that account for all her worldly possessions. Begging has been her source of income for over 40 years, she said, the means by which she feeds her children every day.
Begging by day and sleeping by roadsides at night, shielding themselves from rain by huddling under the awning of a nearby shop, fleeing and hiding in corners when chased by the police – this family lives a truly wretched life. With no proper place to stay they roam the streets day after day, washing up at a tap close by.
Shunned by society, this little woman bravely tries to bring up her children on her own. As difficult as it is, all four of them are sent to school in Rajagiriya every day. “It’s also a way of keeping them off the roads for a couple of hours”, she explained as her other children came running up from a nearby street.
“My goal in life is to educate my children. After all, it is my fault that my children are in this pathetic situation because I’m uneducated and can’t do a proper job. They must do better in life,” Sandamali said determinedly. Her children, after digging around in a threadbare schoolbag, pulled out a couple of exercise books, which they showed off to me proudly.
The four children also have an older brother and a sister who they have never seen in their lives. The two siblings were taken away from their mother over 10 years ago by a policewoman and put in an orphanage. When Sandamali visited the police station in the hope of seeing her two children a couple of days later, she was told that they did not know where exactly the children had been sent to.
“I went again and again but they kept saying they did not know and ignored my pleas. I never saw my children after that!” she said tearfully, her voice breaking.
At the urging of yet another policeman she put her children in an orphanage a year ago, but they came running back to her a few weeks later complaining that they were not fed and were mistreated.
“All I want is a place to live, to sleep in at night, somewhere my children and I can stay without any fear,” she said, accepting a 10-rupee note with fervent thanks from a woman passing by.
Ranjit Fernando, another beggar in the vicinity, echoed the need for a safe place to live in. Once a resident of Ratmalana, Fernando, who had a steady job and a wife, lost both in an unfortunate series of events. Now, with no house and no money, he is forced to beg on roads and on buses on days he cannot find odd jobs to buy food for himself.
According to him, he could collect anywhere between Rs.10 to 150 a day through begging, depending on the generosity of the people.
When asked about what he does when he falls sick, he explained that he visits the nearest government hospital or is taken care of by other beggars in the area, as all of them have no proper place to stay and group together at night.
“Any form of help from the government would be greatly appreciated – I only live like this because I have no other choice,” Fernando said dejectedly.
10-year-old Sumith, a painfully thin boy with sores on his legs, clad in a T-shirt that is too big for him and blue shorts, hopped off a bus clutching a fistful of crumpled notes and coins that he had begged off the passengers on the bus.
“I have one sister and we live with our mother on the road,” he answered, looking down at his feet when asked about his family. He never knew his father.
Sumith explained that he and his sister did not attend school because their mother didn’t send them. His mother and sister earned a living by begging. Home, according to Sumith, was a small shack in the area.
“I have had a couple of run-ins with some policemen, but they just let me off with a scolding,” he said, grinning and running off happily with the note I handed him.
Most of these people have resorted to begging due to sheer desperation due to various complications that prevent them from getting proper jobs. Then there are also people like Ranjit Fernando who beg in between jobs as a means of making some money when there is no employment available. All these people, however, agreed on one thing, which is that any sort of government help would be greatly appreciated, especially regarding proper shelter. There are supposedly many rehabilitation schemes that have been initiated to deal with this issue, but little or no progress seems to have been made, leaving the Sandamalis and Sumiths of this country with no option but to wander along the streets, relying on the charity of the public to get them through their dismal lives.
