Street Cryers

Women with babies asleep on their shoulders in the heat of the sun and even the pouring rain, roam the streets of Colombo fervently hoping that someone will drop a note into their cans for some bread for the day. The difficulty is in choosing between giving and ignoring the pleading cries.

The industry of employed beggars is undoubtedly bringing large revenues for many entrepreneurs country wide. The number seems to be constantly increasing with restaurants, supermarkets and clothes outlets. Traffic lights and places of worship have also been infested. In deciding whether to give or not, the rational person may consider various possibilities of a situation. Sometime the amount given on charity is influenced by the physical ability or disability of these cryers. They say, no one feels the pain of easy money but is that actually applicable to the ones burning their skins to sleep on payments to put on a convincing act. Is that actually the best they could do?

A question that must disturb many of us, is to find out what our role is here. What other legal ways could they – the street cryers - be employed in? For me, finding time to ponder is the hardest of all. So I settle back like the rest of the passive 19 million of my land… to leave this thought at this blog and nothing more!