This is the second in a series of articles on the economics of Ramadan. The other two focus on Ramadan-induced inflation and the externalities of Ied exodus.
Begging on the street is haram—forbidden by divine sanction—and beggars will be cracked down by the authority. At least that is what’s going to happen if the Indonesian Council of Ulemmas (MUI) and the Indonesian government can have it their way.
It appears that only several days into the holy month of Ramadan, major cities all over Indonesia are already flooded with seasonal beggars. Seemingly as a response to that, the government announced that they endorsed all efforts to take beggars off the streets, including MUI’s move to declare begging haram.
I’m quite certain there will be people who would highlight how the MUI and government are misguided with their plans. So allow me to focus instead on what I believe to be one of the main reasons—although most certainly not the only one—why we have the whole problem with beggars, especially the seasonal ones, in the first place: ourselves and our perverse sense of charity.
Let’s start from the beginning and make one thing clear: begging is a job. Beggars may be officially referred to as the unemployed, but by all economic definitions, they are service providers. Begging requires capital, time, and hard labor. If you don’t believe me, try waiting on the side of the street for eight to ten hours a day in the baking sun, inhaling toxic fumes, while soliciting potential “clients.” It also provides service; beggars supply us with a venue to delude ourselves that we’re helping the poor, compensate our sense of guilt for not helping enough, and—this is my personal favorite—help us secure a nice spot in heaven. Ramadan allegedly doubles that last benefit; this perception, as we’ll soon see, pushes behavior with some unintended consequences.
Individuals choose jobs based on their personal cost-benefit analysis. Beggars choose begging because it’s the “best” job for them; the job provides them with the highest return per unit time, taking into account the condition of the job market, the resources available to them, and the skills that they have. The higher the return gets, the higher the attractiveness of begging as a job. And many of us have done plenty to make that return really high.
While academic research is lacking, various journalistic investigations indicate that begging can bring up to Rp. 100,000 in one day. That’s about Rp. 2,500 per 15 minutes for a ten-hour day of work, which is quite a reasonable figure. That income generation can increase dramatically during Ramadan, in which somehow a lot of people believe their alms are more valuable than in the rest of the months in the lunar calendar. As a comparison, a car mechanic earns about Rp. 50,000 in average per working day. Even if a person has other employable skills, begging would still be a very lucrative job. So you can stop wondering why we have hordes of beggars, seasonal or otherwise; you might very well contribute to the phenomenon.
If that’s all there is to it, there should be no problem. If begging is a legitimate job, let beggars beg. But there are at least two serious consequences of seasonal begging. First, they crowd out the urban poorest, who unlike the seasonal beggars have absolutely no alternative but begging. Second, there is an increased use of children, either as beggars or as props, thus denying them of time for education and exposing them to extremely hazardous condition. Many people’s tendency to give more alms to children and baby-carrying beggars is certainly not helping either. Your alms during Ramadan, even if they really do increase your chance of going to heaven, end up depriving the poorest of the poor and endangering children back here on earth.
At this point I wish to make a disclaimer that I’m not making a case against giving. Rather, I’m making a case against giving incorrectly. My real contention is that it’s almost always better to channel your alms through respectable charity organizations than to give the same amount of money directly to beggars—at least if your intention is to really help the poor.
Charity organizations that channel alms can do so more effectively than individual alms-givers. The pooled alms that they manage are significantly large that they can use them to fund well-planned programs, both short and long-term, that are more sustainable. Most of such organizations do more than simply help the poor survive day by day; they also have an eye on the horizon, providing financial assistance for education and even capital to start small businesses.
If you still prefer giving directly to beggars because they’d get all your money without having to pay the service of a middle man, think again. Like any underground economic sector, seasonal beggars are organized. And they have to pay a fee for the “organizers.” Under such arrangement, a beggar would typically get a meager 30 percent of what they earn. An accountable charity organization would spend most of your alms on their targeted beneficiaries; and they would show you their financial report to prove it if you asked for it. Give directly to beggars and you’d most likely give less.
At the end of the day, perhaps the best litmus test is your own conscience. So the next time you feel the impulse of giving small change to street beggars instead of giving the same amount of money to a respectable charity organization, ask yourself, “Am I doing this because I really want to help them and I’m certain that my petty coins would bring a significant impact to them, or am I doing this simply to make me feel good about myself and perhaps increase the probability of securing a nice place in the afterlife?”
Then again, if MUI and the government push forward with their respective plans, we might not have the opportunity to ask that question at all.
An edited version of this article is featured in Jakarta Globe
September 1, 2009 at 6:27 am
This is my favorite out of all your op-eds – so far. Looking forward to the day you actually have your own column at the Post or the Globe! 🙂
p.s: this is Maesy, btw.
September 1, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Thanks, Maes! I was really looking forward to comments challenging my theory; would be cool to have at least one of those.
September 2, 2009 at 12:37 am
Riva,
It is a HUGE task to change the mindset of the majority “mainstream” who think they ARE doing good by giving charity to beggars on the street… But I still feel you should give credit to those who truly do it from the heart alias “ikhlas”, with no “strings attached”.
It’s not their mistake that they think like the way they do, and they DO truly believe that this is a “good thing to do as a human being”.
That it is actually the responsibility of the country to take beggars off the street and provide social security for them is another issue… you can write a whole new series of articles from that 🙂
Selamat puasa, and selamat berzakat…
Cheers,
Sri
September 2, 2009 at 8:04 am
Hi Tante Sri
I do believe that there are many who give alms directly to beggars purely because of the kindness of their hearts; but that doesn’t negate the harm that they incur by their actions. We all know too well that even the noblest of intention can bring about harm. And this, I believe, is one of those instances. I also believe that it’s our responsibility to enlighten others, especially those who really do have noble intention, of the consequences of their action. Like you said, it’s not their mistake that they think the way they do; but it would be our mistake if we don’t inform them of the harm of their actions. As a matter of fact, if they really did want to help others, I’m pretty sure they’d want to be informed if what they’re doing backfired.
The government has nothing to do with the fact that a beggar can earn more in a day than a car mechanic; WE did that. Even if the state provides social security for all, begging would still be a lucrative job if we keep maintaining its high rate of return. And in an underground economy, this can lead to people being coerced or manipulated to become beggars by a super agent–in fact, this is exactly what’s happening now. The Jakartan administration are already on the hunt for 33 individuals over beggar rings.
Putting all the responsibility to take beggars off the street on the government also doesn’t make a lot of sense if we’re still giving alms directly to them. Because that’d mean that we’re giving alms money to beggars and encourage them to beg, and then we give tax money to the government to round them up.
We have really, REALLY good organizations that channel zakat and sadaqah. At the national level, Bazis and Dompet Dhuafa are doing amazing things. There are plenty organizations at the local level, as well. It’s them that we should utilize.
September 2, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Then maybe it’s time that competent organizations like Dompet Dhuafa and Bazis start not only promoting themselves, but promoting the issue to change the mindset of people. If people realized how the “mafia ring” of beggars really worked, they should be piping mad…piping mad enough to really clean up and drastically re program the mindset of all people.
Riva, there are a few comments from my mailing list, all commending you for your sharp literary skills and analysis.
Keep it up!
September 20, 2009 at 3:17 pm
[…] This is the first in a series of articles on the economics of Ramadan. The other two discuss how charity can harm the poor and the externalities of Ied […]
December 14, 2009 at 12:02 pm
WHAT ARE THE ROOT CAUSES FOR THE PREVALENCE OF BEGGARS ON STREET LINE ?