Recently, there were news reports of a beggar in Bihar, who is now accepting alms not just in cash but also in digital form. It would seem that Raju Patel has found the ultimate solution to the excuse ‘chhutta nai hai’ given by people to those begging for money. So this unique beggar has a QR code and smartphone all ready to receive digital alms.
An Image from the Bettiah railway station shows Raju Patel with what appears to be a QR code and someone making a digital payment using their phone. Another image shows Raju along with a more traditional kind of beggar.
The tweeple noticed that this person claiming to be a beggar seems to be able to afford a smartphone. Someone else pointed out that any ‘decent bhikhari’ now has at least one in the family.
Many of the tweeple thought this was a smart way of growing the ‘business’.
Some saw this – begging for and accepting digital payments – as a sign of progress.
This Twitter user feels that something like this may well be used for political mileage – it is not unconceivable that some politician will take credit for having “produced digital bhikhaarees’.
This image shows the old fashioned sort of beggar with a ‘lota’ – from the UPA era, said this tweet.
As several comments pointed out, this is a fairly well-known personality who has been well known in the area for several years now. He is known to have a Bluetooth speaker and clear political affiliations as well.
While some were laughing about how digital alms are a sign of progress, many pointed out that this was still beggary which pointed to poverty, joblessness and helplessness – the opposite of progress.
Foreigners often come to India and take pictures of poor people, homeless people, slums and squalor; what is sometimes referred to as poverty porn. Isn't this just another form of it – a fetishising of poverty, as this tweet says?
This accusation is often levelled against people who beg on the streets – that they are lazy, and unwilling to work; looking for handouts. I have always felt that begging is hard work – being on the streets in hazardous traffic, terrible weather conditions, dealing with rude people. Surely working for a living could not be more difficult – and would certainly be more dignified. However, the fact is that we don’t know the kind of circumstances and compulsions that could have pushed a person into a life of begging – even a beggar as tech-savvy and modern as Raju Patel of Bettiah
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