People often say, we should not give anything to the beggars and I know it is for a long term betterment and that we should discourage such things, there are rackets operating behind the scene and its a business for them etc etc etc.... All of this is true and I fully agree to it BUT as a human being when you see a very small kid with his stomach touching his back, way behind the ribs, what should you do???
Long back, I was walking with one of my friends and we had big yummy ice creams in our hand. There was a little girl who started coming behind us, and seeing some expressions on my face, my friend immediately instructed me not to give her anything and that we should not promote begging. I agreed to her and we kept walking and the little girl kept following us with a hope in her eyes. She was begging, holding our hands, pulling our clothes but we kept ignoring and saying no to her. Finally after a few minutes, I ended up giving my ice cream to her which was already half and melted by then.
I ignited the moral police in my friend with this, and she had to explain to me, what I have done, what is the impact of it and why I should not have done that. I could not find a single point in that discussion/speech which was wrong or to which I or anyone could disagree. And I was the culprit behind who was creating the beggars which not only destroys the life of those poor kids but also makes the city dirty and when a foreigner comes to India, gets a bad picture of our country. And the only way to curb this is by discouraging my act - or at least that is the starting point.
While all this was happening, I noticed she dumped almost 3/4th of her ice cream into a dustbin (basically a pile of garbage over once existing dustbin). You know the size of ice creams that we get in the Malls, no one can eat a full ice cream, unless you plan to eat one as your lunch or dinner 
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After that incident, I do not think I ever gave anything to a beggar. Although every time I pass by, I am confused, was it right or wrong? People say, if you have to do something for them, go through a proper channel. There are so many institutions and you can make a donation to any of them. But figures show that many of those institutions are run by big people and is mostly on paper. There was a survey by NABARD or some such institution and my home district had topped the list with over 850 fake NGOs eating up the entire 100% of fundings they managed to get from individuals and organizations world wide. So even this way we are promoting some or the other rackets.
Further although I think I have to but I hardly donate to any of the institutions, in my entire life, I remember to contribute less than 5 times. I am sure all others must be making contributions on a regular basis and at least some percentage of it must be getting used properly.
I will still be looking for some help or an answer to what I have been pondering over from years. Ignoring, turning off your face, or pretending that they do not exist is definitely a social failure. I believe there are a lot of people like me, who are capable, want to BUT are not able to make donations to charitable trusts and at the same time are always struggling to find an answer to "What do we do when we see someone in that pathetic state"?
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