Dignity, Not Alms, Is What Shyam 'Pagla' Gives Calcutta's Beggars

"I see a beggar as a human being and not a strange creature to be avoided," says the man who has spent more than 35 years walking the streets of this metropolis, collecting personal data and, in the process, rehabilitating more than 24,000 beggars. Some have opened shops while others have picked up jobs as maids. Once he wrote revolutionary poetry in college and even managed a clerk's job with the State Transport Department. But his empathy for beggars eventually cost him all-his job, family and home. It didn't deter him. His handful of friends fondly call him Shyam Pagla-Shyam the madman.

It was a small incident that triggered off Shyam's benevolent streak. Informed by neighbours during a game of soccer that his father was dying, he rushed home. "I was shocked. My father was lying on the floor. He could not speak but just lifted a finger, pointing towards the iron safe. It seemed he was telling me that the safe was empty... I realised that if I did not pick up a job, I would have to beg." A few years later, Shyam accidentally met two-time Congress legislator Mahadev Mukherjee begging on the platforms of Sealdah station. "It was then that I decided to take the plunge."

A welcome one since Calcutta, teeming with its 13-million population, has beggars clustering around its temples, ghats, streets and office complexes. A typical day for Shyam starts at his small free clinic at Salkia, which he runs with the help of a qualified doctor. Then he travels across the river to Calcutta where he walks for long hours to meet newcomers and check the status of the rehabilitated ones. He has set up the world's only Beggar Bureau, compiling fascinating research material on the world's largest beggar population.

His research material shows that more than 25 per cent of the city's beggar population has proper bank accounts with savings crossing the Rs 25,000 mark. An estimated 14 per cent have bought land in the countryside while more than 75 per cent have a daily income of Rs 50. The study further reveals that 65 per cent of the beggar community comprises the disabled, leprosy patients and the old, of which an estimated 7.89 per cent take to begging because of lack of jobs.

"It may seem that the beggars are a happier lot but reality shows something else. Begging is extremely humiliating," says Shyam, whose efforts to rehabilitate young, female beggars as maidservants earned him accolades from the city's intelligentsia. But the state government has constantly rejected Shyam's findings, maintaining that the city's beggar population was a little less than 20,000. As a result, Shyam continues to depend on donations from friends. "I don't care. I don't need funds from international agencies. What I am looking for is minimum security and marginal prestige for these hapless people. And I am certain no government-either in Bengal or in Delhi-has the time for it."

In a life dedicated to destitutes, Shyam's last wish also has a tinge of benevolence. Folded inside his starched dhoti is a small note that reads: "I hereby authorise the Indian government to sell my skeleton to a foreign hospital and spend the proceeds for the welfare of beggars."

Want to lend a helping hand to one who lends his to others? Just write to Shyam Bandhopadhyay, Beggar Research Bureau, 95/1, Sri Aurobindo Road, Salkia, Howrah, West Bengal.