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In this archive story we are meeting an Indian street beggar in Mumbai, India.
Read the background story of this archive photo by the photographer. |
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In India, countless people grow up in extreme poverty and they live in bitterly poor rural regions or in the huge slums of the mega-cities such as with this Indian street beggar photographed in Mumbai. Despite much progress, people in India still have no future because they belong to the "untouchables" caste and the rights of women and girls are still trampled on.
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Indian street beggar
2/3 of the people in India live in poverty and almost 70 percent of the Indian population have to live on less than $2 dollars a day. Over 30 percent have even less than $1.25 dollars a day at their disposal and they are considered extremely poor and this makes the Indian subcontinent one of the poorest countries on Earth. Women and children, the weakest links in Indian society, suffer most from poverty in India with a total of 800 million people on the subcontinent live in poverty.
Shoud I give money to beggars?
Whether or not you should give beggars something on site in India depends on the situation. In a tourist environment you are more likely to cause damage and you should never give children anything or they may go begging instead of going to school, which is a vicious cycle. |
A common sight in many of the world's cities and towns
Beggars as it is seen with this indian street beggar are an all too common sight in many of the world's cities and towns. They can be found standing on street corners and outside of stores, asking for money or food. As much as we may want to ignore them and move on, they play an important role in our society. Beggars are often homeless and have no other means of supporting themselves as street beggars. They rely on the kindness of strangers to provide them with the basic necessities of life such as food, clothing and shelter. In addition, many beggars are disabled or elderly and unable to work. Without the help of passersby, they would be unable to survive.
What is beggar?
Begging is also a form of protest. In the beggar images the many beggars are protesting the unfair economic and social inequalities that exist in their society. They are a reminder that not everyone is able to take advantage of the same opportunities and resources that are available to those of us who are more privileged. Some people may view beggars as a nuisance or a danger. However, they can be an asset to the community. Beggars can provide a valuable service by helping to reduce crime in their areas. Studies have shown that criminals are less likely to commit crimes in areas where there are a lot of beggars also in the Indian streets photography.
Awareness about poverty and social inequality
Begging can also help to raise awareness about poverty and social inequality. When people see a beggar and an Indian beggar, it can be a reminder of the hardships that so many people face in their everyday lives. This can help to create a sense of empathy and understanding of the struggles that so many people deal with on a daily basis. Beggars should not be judged or discriminated against. Instead, we should recognize their humanity and the difficult circumstances that have led them to the streets as in the beggar photos. We should also be mindful of the fact that begging is often their only form of income and that it can be a means of survival. By being more understanding and compassionate towards beggars, we can help to make our communities more caring and supportive.
India is terrible with its poor
India is the most populous country, which is characterized by strong contrasts, has had growth rates of up to 10 percent for years and is one of the largest economies in the world. However, only a small proportion of the Indian population has benefited from this impressive economic boom so far, because the majority of the people in India still live in bitter poverty. More than 800 million people are considered poor in India and most of them live in the country and keep afloat with odd jobs and the lack of living jobs in rural areas drives many Indians to the rapidly growing metropolitan regions such as Mumbai and Delhi.
There most of them can expect a life of poverty and despair in the mega-slums consisting of millions of corrugated iron huts, without sufficient drinking water supply, without garbage disposal and in many cases without electricity. The poor hygiene conditions are the cause of diseases such as 'Cholera', 'Typhoid' and 'Dysentery', from which children in particular suffer and die and poverty and the hope of a better life for their daughters and many parents cite this as the reason for the premature marriage and the photographer coul ask in which country is it worst not to have money because being poor or even homeless is nowhere beautiful, but if there is a country that is terrible for its poor, it is India.
Many travelers who come to India for the first time can hardly stand the misery and the encounter with the pictures of beggars on the street. But the longer you stay, the less you see it and the many Indian millionaires have probably not seen the poor in years and then if not consciously and the Indian prime minister probably did not consider the lower class in this currency reform, otherwise it would have been different. Although you can make ends meet in India with just a few dollars a day, there is a lot of Extreme poverty in India and the money in my bank account that is currently out of reach would probably be enough to feed a large Indian family for months or years.
"There are sluggish beggars sitting on every street corner, beggars on street and in front of every major train station you can see families with children strewn with flies. A cripple pushes itself through each railway compartment. Begging seems almost a normal and extremely job in India"
Authentic travel in India
India is always changing and a travel plan in India has to be as flexible as a yoga master. If you try to force something, you despair of this country. There is a lot of fuss about authentic travel. It often means traditional clothing and even poverty is glorified in the name of authenticity, for instance a rice farmer in the field. In India, many other things are just as authentic so as the traffic, the noise, the dirt, the power cuts. If the Indians have to interrupt their everyday life to stand in front of the bank for hours, this is also authentic and the photographer is not happy to do the same, but he gets to know India better than before his Rajasthan tour.
"- Oh, how authentic we say and take a picture and ian mage of beggar on the streets of India. I don't want to exempt myself from it and I'm totally into such clichés. But we only tolerate authenticity if it doesn't affect us", the Photographer says.
Not all Westerners automatically have it well and here we also treats its poor very poorly and lets it vegetate on the streets instead of putting on a reliable social program like in some places in Europe where Kristian Bertel | Photography is located. This is not least due to the Western dream that says if you really want to, you can make it from a dishwasher to a millionaire. If a whole people believes that, then everyone who does not even make it to the dishwasher will be left behind. And the millionaires feel entitled to trample on the homeless because, according to this logic, they are responsible for their own poverty and have not earned anything else and the joke is that social mobility is very low in the Western world, even lower than ours.
"If you see a millionaire in the Western world today, he was probably not a dishwasher before, but his parents were already millionaires and meritocracy is not working and inequality is growing even if the Western world dream has long since burst, it is still considered a moral justification for trampling on everyone, if only by supporting libertarian politics and this is how the Western dream becomes a social nightmare"
The responsibility in the Indian life
The Indian nightmare is worse than the Western one and you are not only responsible for what happens to you in this life, but also in the next and your very birth is a direct result of the amount of 'Karma' you have collected in the past life. Whoever lies in the gutter was an evil person in the last life and deserved it. Whoever lies in the gutter and resigns himself well can collect 'Karma' for the next life. With such a merciless fatalism, of course, there is not much room for pity. The still very strong caste system also almost abolishes social mobility and in India you can recognize the caste by the last name. As an "untouchable", you have little or no training and job opportunities. You stay where your parents, grandparents and great grandparents were. As a woman you have it even harder and woe you become a widow or old without enough children.
Criticism of the Caste system in India has been a reason for the emergence of Sikhism and several attempts at Hindu reform in the past. Unfortunately, that did not help much. In the country in India everything is still like in the Middle Ages. At least in large cities, caste membership is slowly becoming less important. The Indians on the street do not have it as easy and escaping poverty not only seems difficult, but impossible and if you live from hand to mouth, your planning horizon does not go beyond the next meal and if you do not know any other life, what do you want to change? Life is unfair and these people have never had a reasonably fair chance and if you were born in India in their place, you would still be in the gutter in their place today.
"We all who can read this archive story think that we have won the birth lottery along with about 1 billion other people and that means we do not have to fight dogs for food scraps for the rest of our lives. The more we say goodbye to the notion that we deserve our own status, the sooner we can feel sorry for the remaining 6 billion people, who were less fortunate. Of course, on average there is a connection between performance and earnings. But it is about completely different orders of magnitude"
Morality action and the mistake of thinking morally
We all have morality and if the poverty lies in front of us on the street and begs us, we find it bad and shocking and if poverty stays somewhere in India, we find that yawn. To fix this mistake in thinking a trip to India is highly recommended and can change your worldview and go to India and reflect how lucky you were at the birth lottery. After that, you will find it difficult to complain about anything in your life. India frees us from our worries and turns them into first world problems that are not worth mentioning.
Beggars in India, giving, helping or donating money?
India may even make you an altruist, but you have to decide for yourself. With your trip you will definitely help The Indian economy, especially as a backpacker. Reasons can either be longer stay, better money distribution, local consumption instead of import, small entrepreneurs instead of employees, 30 percent instead of 70 percent leakage loss. When the photographer first came to India, he suddenly understood the impulse to give up everything at home to help people here. Still, volunteering is not a good idea and the idea of helping with your own hands is no more than an ego trip as a result. Basically, it is better to donate to efficient organizations than to give money to beggars or to do voluntary tourism.
See this video about India's poverty made by Times Of India.
The photographer's own experience about taking poverty photos in India
"- Taking photos of poverty in India can also bring with it a feeling of unease and helplessness. There is often no tangible change brought to those lives captured on film and it can be difficult to find the courage to take those photos or to share them with an indifferent world. For anyone with a passion for storytelling, taking poverty photos in India can be a difficult task. But in the end, this experience can bring a deep understanding of the human condition and an appreciation for the fragility of life. It may also spark a greater appreciation for the privileges we have and an understanding of the importance of using them to serve those in need. It is no understatement to say that poverty in India is prevalent and unyielding. As an Indian photographer, I've had the opportunity to witness and capture these poverty-stricken areas of the country firsthand. To be seeing a fraction of the reality that so many must endure in India is at times painful and heartbreaking – yet is simultaneously humbling, inspiring and profoundly eye-opening", the Photographer says again.
"- My experience of photographing beggars in India has been a life-changing one. It has made me appreciate the beauty of others and the willingness of people to help those in need. I've brought back with me a deeper understanding and appreciation for the culture and people of India. The experience of photographing beggars in India can be quite a complex one. For starters, there is the guilt associated with taking photos of someone who is less fortunate than you and the feeling of unease when you are being closely scrutinised by the public. But then there is the unique opportunity to witness the harsh realities of life in India firsthand and the power of images to affect our view of the world", the Photographer says again.
"- The streets of the major cities of India are a teeming hive of activity. It is impossible to take a step in any direction without seeing one of the countless beggars that occupy the space. They often look unkempt due to poverty and lack of resources and it can be difficult to tear your eyes away from their plea for help. It takes a literate eye and a degree of professionalism, to capture a good image of the beggars in India. The photographer must respect the subject, keep their distance and be prepared to exercise patience to obtain the right photograph. It is also important to remember what you are capturing and why, as these images can often evoke serious emotions for the viewer", the Photographer says again.
Read also: Boy in a village portraiture
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India is a land full of stories. On every street, on every corner and in the many places in India, life is rushing by you as a photographer with millions of stories to be told. In the archive story above, you hopefully had a readable insight in the story that was behind the photo of an Indian woman in Mumbai. On this website of Kristian Bertel | Photography you can find numerous travel pictures from the photographer. Stories and moments that tell the travel stories of how the photographer captured the specific scene that you see in the picture. The photographer's images have a story behind them, images that all are taken from around India throughout his photo journeys. The archive stories delve into Kristian's personal archive to reveal never-before-seen, including portraits and landscapes beautifully produced snapshots from various travel assignments. The archive is so-far organized into photo stories, this one included, each brought to life by narrative text and full-color photos. Together, these fascinating stories tell a story about the life in India. India, the motherland to many people around the world, a land of unforgetable travel moments. The archive takes viewers on a spectacular visual journey through some of the most stunning photographs to be found in the photographer's archive collection. The photographer culled the images to reflect the many variations on the universal theme of beauty and everyday life in India. By adding these back stories the photographer's work might immensely enhanced the understanding of the photographs.
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