First, the general situation and classification of urban begging
1? The meaning, mode and present situation of urban begging
Begging is commonly called begging. In the traditional sense, "begging" refers to those who have difficulty making a living due to natural and man-made disasters, diseases and other reasons. In order to survive, they beg for food from others, mostly in the countryside. Begging in the modern sense is far from begging in the traditional sense. Since the reform and opening up, with the improvement of people's living standards and the further widening of the income gap between urban and rural areas, begging troops have already flooded into cities, begging is no longer food rations, but money.
There are also various ways to beg. "Tang Xiujuan, a lecturer in the Department of Management, School of Management, Guangzhou University, once organized a special survey and observed and analyzed 135 vagrants and beggars. Through investigation, it is found that there are five main ways of begging: street performers; Represents disability and disease; Weaknesses; Special cause formula; Cheating. Among the observed 135 beggars, buskers accounted for 24.44%, and only 19 of them were healthy people. Winning the sympathy and charity of pedestrians by showing their disabilities or diseases accounts for 2 1.48% of the total number of people surveyed. Begging for property by showing one's fragile side, such as the old, the weak, women and children. These people often pester foreigners to beg, which is a common way of begging, accounting for 35.56% of the observed population. Through various excuses, most of them attract the public's attention and beg for money in the form of "complaining about the land" or crying about difficulties, accounting for 9. 12% of the observed population. Begging by such rogue means as stopping vehicles, opening doors, cleaning cars, hugging feet and selling flowers. , accounting for 5.93%, more common in areas where foreigners come and go frequently. " ②
In the past, beggars were occasionally seen in the streets of cities, but now they can be seen everywhere in railway stations, squares, overpasses and underground passages. Originally, people saw miserable beggars in the street and the metropolis came forward to offer love, but now a large number of beggars have already exceeded the limits of people's charity. Many people can only shake their heads helplessly when they see beggars to show that they have more money. In the face of common beggars, people's love and sympathy have long been numb and powerless, and they seem to turn a blind eye and turn a deaf ear, and some people are even more afraid to avoid it.
Faced with the "begging army" all over the city, people can't help wondering: Are there really so many people in our country who have to beg to survive? There was once such a public service advertisement: a "blind man" wearing sunglasses and in rags was sitting at the gate of a primary school begging, holding a guide stick in his hand. The naive child thought he was really blind. Seeing that he was so "pitiful", everyone gave him all his pocket money. In the evening, a primary school student went to a restaurant near the school to eat, only to find that the "blind man" begging at the school gate during the day was sitting in a corner of the restaurant, munching on chicken legs, ordering a lot of dishes and putting two bottles of wine on the table. No wonder people are afraid to give their love easily, largely for fear that their love will be cheated.
2? Classification of urban beggars
At present, the phenomenon of begging in cities in China is quite common, with a large number of people and complicated situation. Therefore, it is necessary to classify specific situations in order to treat them differently and handle them properly. Judging from the authenticity of begging, beggars can be divided into two categories: real beggars and fake beggars. As the name implies, real beggars are people who really need to beg for a living, while fake beggars are people who beg under the guise of getting rich and getting something for nothing.
Real beggars can be divided into five categories. The first category is those poor old people who are unable to work and have no one to support them (some are not childless, but their children fail to fulfill their support obligations). Most of these people come from rural areas, especially poor areas. Most of them are weather-beaten, sallow and emaciated, and some of them are still sick. In order to survive, they embarked on the road of begging. The second category is disabled people who have lost their ability to work and people with serious diseases. Some of these people have a high amputation rate, some are blind, and some are terminally ill and have no money for treatment. In order not to drag down their families, they had to beg along the street to make a living. The third category is orphans. There are only a few such beggars, most of whom have their parents dead and no one to raise them, and eventually become small beggars. Others suffer from various congenital diseases and are abandoned in the streets by cruel parents. Most orphans with normal intelligence and sound limbs will be adopted. The fourth category is beggars who have left their homes because of earthquakes, floods, famines, plagues and poverty. Due to the effective welfare assistance measures of the party and the state in recent years, there are not many such beggars. The fifth category is buskers and beggars. Such beggars include cynical young people, middle-aged and elderly people and the disabled. For various reasons, these people have to make a living by busking in the streets in order to survive. This kind of beggar can often be seen in the square of the city. Some can play the erhu, and some can write a good hand. However, they can only use such elegant art as a tool for begging.
Fake beggars can be divided into four categories: the first category is beggars who deliberately dress up in rags and unkempt faces in order to get something for nothing, and defraud passers-by of sympathy by fabricating tragic scenes and facts. What do you mean, "My husband is terminally ill, suddenly caught fire, his family was ruined, he was homeless, and he had an accident ..." The second category is beggars who pretend to be disabled and dying. As mentioned above, those who pretend to be blind, what is more, pretend to be terminally ill and beg on their knees. There are also fathers (mothers) or couples who cheat together: one is lying on the ground, covered with a cloth, and the other is kneeling beside him, crying to passers-by that his loved one has an incurable disease and needs expensive surgery urgently, and begging for help from passers-by because he has no money for medical treatment ... The third category is criminals who control a certain number of disabled people, especially disabled children, and force them to beg from passers-by every day and then profit from it. These disabled people have completely become tools for criminals to make money. In order to increase the tools for making money, some criminals deliberately destroy normal children into disabled people, and then leave them on the street to beg for themselves. The fourth category is a kind of fake begging that has just appeared in recent years. Beggars are mostly junior high school students in their teens. They usually appear near railway stations and bus stations, squatting on the sidewalk with their bags on their backs, and writing a line on the ground with chalk in front of them: Help12 (ranging from 8 to 20 yuan) to go home by car. If someone asks them why they have no money to go home, they will say that their wallets have been stolen or that bad guys have cheated them out of all their money. It is understandable to encounter this phenomenon occasionally, but students are often found begging in the same way near the railway station. This is doubtful.
Second, the reasons for the surge in urban begging
So, why is the development of "begging industry" so hot? I think there are the following reasons:
1. The root cause of the increase in the number of real beggars is poverty. With the development of market economy, some people have really become rich. However, they did not take immediate action to drive others to get rich. In contrast, others are still quite poor, especially in backward mountainous areas and rural areas. Because of poverty, many people are sick and have no money for treatment; Lonely old people have no support; For those who are unable to work, the government can't help all of them. Forced to make a living, these people finally embarked on the road of begging. On the other hand, due to the unbalanced regional economic development and the widening income gap between urban and rural areas, the harvest of farming at home for one year is not as good as that of begging in big cities for half a year, which objectively provides a "shortcut" for those who want to get something for nothing, thus making the begging team in cities grow continuously. "Roughly, beggars beg in crowded areas. Every five minutes, about 200 to 300 people pass by. 1 person gives alms 1 yuan, 1 hour can get about 12 yuan. Begging for 8 hours a day is about 20 to 100 yuan a day, so beggars are fixed for one month. ③
2. Poor management of urban begging. Although in 2003, China abolished the "Measures for the Reception and Repatriation of Urban Vagrants and Beggars" promulgated by 1982, and officially implemented the "Administrative Measures for the Relief of Vagrants and Beggars Without Living in Cities". However, this has not reduced the number of beggars. Due to the problems in the Administrative Measures for the Relief of Vagrants and Beggars with No Life in Cities, such as single relief content, low relief level and difficult implementation of relief expenses, this new management method has not played its due role. The lack of a proper mechanism to deal with urban beggars is the fundamental reason for the lack of management. If all kinds of begging phenomena can be followed by laws and systems, the rescuer can be effectively rescued, and the punisher can be punished properly, then the whole "begging market" will be orderly. Therefore, it is an urgent task to improve a set of management mechanism to deal with the problem of urban begging.
3. The crackdown on fraud and illegal begging is not strong enough. Due to the lack of relevant laws and ineffective crackdown, some people who want to get rich by begging and engage in illegal crimes have an opportunity, which not only deceives people's feelings, but also causes a crisis of trust between people, damages the interests and credibility of those real beggars, and will also affect social security and stability.
4. The education of teenagers' outlook on life and values is insufficient. Nowadays, teenagers are mostly only children, with strong self-esteem and competitiveness, and it is inevitable to be stubborn and extreme. Therefore, it is not surprising that if we do not pay attention to the education of values and outlook on life in their education, it will lead to cynical young people begging in the streets. In addition, the negative influence of market economy, the lack of honesty and the concept of money first have a deep influence on teenagers. If they are not guided and educated in a timely and comprehensive manner, some teenagers will also embark on the road of derailment and begging.
5. Weakening of family ethics centered on "filial piety". Due to the weakening of family ethics with "filial piety" as the core, there have been many phenomena of "being rich without supporting the elderly". The elderly are obviously a vulnerable group in society, especially in rural areas. They have weak labor ability and low level of cultural knowledge. Many people don't know how to protect their rights and interests with legal weapons when their children don't support the elderly. Some people don't want to take their children to court easily even if they know. They are afraid that they will be hated by their children. Therefore, when they lose their ability to work and can't make a living, they are likely to take the road of begging. Although this phenomenon is rare, it does exist.
6. The social security system is not perfect. At present, the social security system in China is far from perfect. The object of social security is mainly the unemployed in cities and towns. At the same time, the minimum living security system can't cover all corners of society, especially the backward and poor rural areas.
Third, the bad social problems caused by urban begging.
It is precisely because of many different factors that the "begging industry" has developed at an unprecedented scale and speed, and the abnormal development of begging has brought a series of bad social problems to society:
1. Affect the city appearance. Since the reform and opening up, China's modernization has made great achievements, its comprehensive national strength has greatly jumped, and its international status has been unprecedentedly improved. Especially after China's accession to the WTO, international trade and exchanges have increased significantly, tourism has become increasingly prosperous, and opportunities for international friendly people to come to China have surged. In this case, we should pay more attention to the optimization and beautification of the domestic environment and maintain a good image. At present, vagrants and beggars in the streets are kneeling or lying on the main roads, or crawling on the ground with their limbs exposed, forcing them to stop, and even intimidating and harassing pedestrians, which damages the image of the city. This not only affects the "city appearance", but also relates to the "national ability" and affects the full play and display of the superiority of the socialist system. In addition, we must be alert to the possibility that foreign hostile forces may use begging to slander China.
2. It leads to "weak sympathy", and it is difficult for real vulnerable groups to get help. At present, the purpose of begging is difficult to argue, and the phenomenon of begging all over the country makes the public turn a blind eye. Because charity to beggars is often deceived, it will cause people to "sympathize with the weak" and lead many people to refuse to donate money to beggars. Over time, this will weaken people's sympathy, weaken their sympathy, and lead to the disadvantaged groups who really need help not being rescued. In the long run, our society will lose the minimum sympathy. This weakened compassion will affect teenagers, especially children, and make children's compassion gradually lose, which will eventually have a very bad impact on society.
3? Affect social stability. On the one hand, beggars are recognized as "the most unstable people in human life." They can't make a living, have no fixed place to live, have nowhere to go, and often take risks and commit deviant crimes, which leads to social unrest. On the other hand, beggars are vagrants who have no proper occupation, are divorced from social management and are not in the normal social order. The more vagrants there are in a society, the more unstable it is. This is determined by the natural connection between floating population and social unrest. When a large number of vagrants poured into the city, the original order of the city was broken. In order to survive and develop, beggars have a strong desire for power and wealth distribution, which will inevitably lead to confusion in thought, morality, behavior and even order. For example, some beggars forcibly clean cars and beg on traffic roads, which affects urban traffic order and threatens public safety.
4. Contribute to the inert atmosphere and destroy the national spirit. The mantra of "three years rather than being an official" is popular among beggars' gangs. It can be seen that the material poverty of beggars is often accompanied by spiritual degradation. Professional beggars' long-term life experience of "knocking at the door to ask for favors, pushing less favors, and asking for humiliation on their backs" has shrunk their character and made them unruly. Begging is a phenomenon that runs counter to our national spirit. The Chinese nation has existed since ancient times. With the development of beggar industry, "spiritual poverty" will spread, which will certainly corrode our national spirit and cultivate lazy national character. At present, in order to make money, beggars in our country, regardless of shame, use methods such as blocking, cursing and kneeling to pester pedestrians, completely losing their personal dignity, causing extremely bad influence on society and individuals and violating our national spirit.
5. Affect the physical and mental development of street children and even the improvement of national quality. Many of the vagrants and beggars are children, and more are disabled children. Education experts pointed out, "Under normal circumstances, children begin to gradually understand society after they are 3 years old. In this process, the first thing they experience is the love given by their parents. In this love, they will feel safe and learn to be kind to others. " However, the little beggar is seriously lacking in the care of his parents, and has received abnormal education during his growth, lacking caress and care for a long time. This will produce a kind of resistance and hostility to society. When you grow up, you will definitely have serious psychological problems. Ma Jiajue's psychological problems exposed in the "Dayun murder case" are a warning to the whole society.
6. It provides a way for the spread of diseases. Because beggars are mostly in rags, untidy, and personal hygiene is not guaranteed; In addition, they live in the wind and eat unsanitary food, and their personal ability to prevent and treat diseases is poor, which provides favorable conditions for the spread of various diseases. ⑤
Fourth, comprehensively strengthen the management of urban begging.
If more and more people regard begging as the "golden key" to get rich, it will be a blasphemy to those who work hard. Those lawless elements who organize disabled people to beg for themselves will be more presumptuous to harm society if they are not punished as they deserve. If those fake beggars are not punished as they deserve, the interests of those beggars who really need sympathy and care will not be guaranteed. Therefore, we should properly handle all kinds of begging in cities.
1. The fundamental way to eradicate begging is to develop the economy and eliminate poverty. Development is the last word, and development is the best medicine to solve all problems. Indeed, if our economy develops to the point where everyone is "provided with a sense of security for the old, strong for the useful, strong for the young, and provided for the widowed and disabled", everyone will have food and clothing, and everyone will live and work in peace and contentment, and no one will beg. After all, begging is generally a way of life that people have to live, and it is not a glorious business. Developing rural economy, especially in old, underdeveloped, frontier and poverty-stricken areas, is an important way to reduce begging. Because most beggars come from these poor and backward places, it is particularly important to develop the economy of old, less, marginal and poor areas.
First of all, the state should increase policy support for backward areas, provide preferential policies for economic development, and encourage high-quality talents to flow to these areas. Secondly, increase capital investment in backward areas and focus on building a number of infrastructure facilities conducive to local economic development. Third, change the mode of economic growth and adjust the industrial structure of backward areas. Develop characteristic economy according to local conditions and make rational use of resources. For example, develop tourism in mountainous areas where conditions permit; Establish factories and mines in areas rich in mineral resources to increase employment; Develop hydropower stations or aquaculture in areas rich in water resources. The state and government provide technical and economic help and support in developing economy and resources. In addition, vigorously develop education in backward areas and improve the cultural quality of local people. The low level of people's cultural knowledge is an important reason for poverty and backwardness in this area. Higher scientific and cultural quality and advanced development concept are the spiritual motivation and intellectual support to help people in backward areas get rid of poverty and become rich. Finally, poverty alleviation through science and technology is combined with economic poverty alleviation. Vigorously promote high-tech achievements suitable for local economic development in backward areas, so that high-tech achievements can benefit people in poor areas as soon as possible. This is a shortcut to help backward areas get rich.
2. Formulate a set of policies and regulations for the assistance and resettlement of vagrants and beggars. According to the specific situation of begging, it is classified: for real beggars, those who are willing to accept assistance, the elderly are sent to nursing homes and the children are sent to orphanages. Register those who are unwilling to accept assistance and establish electronic files for the management of relevant departments. Criticize and educate fake beggars if the circumstances are minor, and give appropriate fines if they refuse to correct them; If the case constitutes a crime, legal responsibility shall be investigated according to law. In addition, it should be exposed in newspapers and the media to make an example.
3. Narrow the regional and urban-rural income gap. Strive to create a fair personal income atmosphere in the whole society. Eliminate the abnormal phenomenon that begging is higher than farmers' farming income. If begging can barely survive, there won't be so many fake beggars as a way to make money. In addition, the state and the government can also stipulate the content of begging. For example, beggars are forbidden to beg for money, which is limited to food and daily necessities.
4. Establish and improve the social security system for urban beggars. The state should set up nursing homes and orphanages for vagrants and beggars to ensure the basic livelihood of beggars who really need social care and help.
5. Strictly regulate and manage the "begging market". Register beggars who are really unable to be resettled or unwilling to accept state assistance, and make reasonable provisions on the way, place and scope of begging. Begging should be civilized and should not disturb the normal life of citizens and social order.
6. Create a good atmosphere of hard work, glory, getting something for nothing and shameful cheating in the whole society. Expose and expose cheating through mass media and other effective ways to help people distinguish between authenticity and ugliness. Make those who have bad begging motives establish a correct outlook on life and values. In addition, vigorously carry forward the traditional virtues of filial piety of the Chinese nation. As the old saying goes, "Filial piety is the first virtue". Providing for the elderly is not only a fine tradition of the Chinese nation, but also an obligation of young people.