If you’ve traveled, it’s likely you’ve seen children begging. Some beg for money, others for candy, toys, or whatever they are frequently given by travelers. For full disclosure, I typically choose not to give to people that beg, in my country or in others.
Some travel bloggers have written extensively about begging. I’m a fan of this piece on Uncornered Market,which I think is really thoughtful and thought provoking. However, you’ll see by the comments that there are various opinions on the subject and lots of people who give to children (or adults for that matter) that beg.
The article that I’m reviewing caught my eye for a few reasons–as travelers, we frequently ask “what we should do”, but not as frequently at “what makes that child beg”. Sure, we assume they are poor, maybe orphans, could be forced to. I think often we are more focused on our reaction to the situation and not quite as focused on the specifics that they, the begging children are reacting to that put them in the situation.
Ballet et al. review the case of child begging in Madagascar. I was absolutely surprised to read, at least at the time of this article, that there were no statistics on child-begging and the topic is not really of interest in academic circles!
Specifically in Madagascar, many children were anecdotally noted to be begging for their parents–the authors wanted to find out if this was the case, and if so, why. They interviewed 100 children; no begging child was older than 14. Of all the children, only 5 did not live with one or both parents. Each of these children were out of school to beg.
In terms of family, 93 children reported healthy parents, and only 23 mothers and 16 fathers were reported as “inactive”. Another 23 mothers were beggars (in comparison to only 2 fathers).
Here is where it gets interesting, though. In terms of begging activities, 58 children said they were forced to by their parents, another 42 percent said it was to eat. Seventeen children reported being beaten by their parents. The parents that take the money are usually the parents that force the children to beg, are often resorting to violence, and this typically happens to children younger than 8 years old. Alternatively, children 9-11 often beg to get money for food, and then use that money directly to eat. The oldest children (11+), that typically earn the most, are usually those with at least one parent that is disabled or ill and they typically share the money with their family.
The authors conclude that “begging provides a means for poor households to exploit child labor”. It is definitely clear that one size doesn’t fit all–there are distinct reasons why different ages of kids and family statuses are begging. They (I think rightly) question the trajectory of child beggars, asking what happens to them, and how their begging behavior/family dynamics impact this path.
As with any research, there are limitations. I do think the authors may overstate their findings given their small and restricted study population that is also geographically isolated. However, given the dearth of the research on the issue, I can understand the wide generalization of their results and they do carefully acknowledge study limitations throughout the article. Additionally, research with children is difficult–children often tell adults what they think they want to hear, which can skew research responses. Not saying that this happened here, but always a concern.
For travelers, I think this study reminds us–importantly–that we have no idea what’s going with most of these children. And we should never assume that we know; we should never assume we understand the problems. Some are truly exploited by their families, others are begging as a way to contribute to their family situation where a parent cannot. It’s certainly not something we can fix with the snap of our fingers. However, I do think begging is a really significant problem. I strongly believe that if it wasn’t effective, it wouldn’t occur.
From an academic perspective, I wish there was more empirical research on the subject. It’s easy to say that we (travelers) should contribute to local non-profit organizations rather than an individual child, but fundamentally it is critical to understand why the child begs (and probably what this means for him/her later in life). Yet it’s so hard to draw meaningful conclusions or identify cross-cutting themes with small samples in specific locations.
Citation: Ballet, J., Bhukuth, A., Rakotonirinjanahary, F., and Rakotonirinjanahary M. 2010. “Family Rationales behind Child Begging in Antananarivo.” Population. 65(4).
Graciela says
Nice response in return of this difficulty with real arguments and explaining everything
about that.