There is no age restriction for a beggar or a beggars child ,, these are born to beg beggars and I am showcasing the beggars of Mumbai , mostly migrants who come with dreams in their eyes and begging requires no skill .. but as one begs it becomes a skill.
The beggar kids of Mahim Church are very glib , they can talk you out of their money , there are kids who are good at touch begging I dont need to elaborate these are young pre pubescent girls and I have shot them too.
Mumbai has a lot of beggars because Mumbai surely has a heart to give for whatever reason.
And Mumbai is an enigma if you are dying on the road nobody will come to your Help,, and we have a callous insensitive Police that considers even the person who Helps a person in a road accident as the main culprit ..you must have knocked him they say .So mostly the Mumbaikar keeps away from all these situations .
Here in Mumbai I have lived since the age of 1 it is a Catch 22 situation ,,you give a lift to a girl she will cry out Rape till you pay her off ,, danger lurks on the streets .
Most of the beggars are police informers too, and most of the beggar kids work as informers for the carjacking Mafia .. that is why you have cars disappearing from the roads off St Michael Church Mahim.
I have met almost all kinds of beggars as a photographer I have documented them see them closely ,, they are humans living in total degradation ,, the new born baby in this beggar tribe is the main source of income .
The child is hired out , and there is good money , as children get more alms than the adults , the adults in the tribe gamble drink do drugs and fornicate , there maybe child prostitution too ..as the girls become pregnant and are hidden from public.. once the child is born it is merely a commodity ,,
I documented all this once at the Turner Road Traffic Signal Bandra , this beggar nomadic tribe lived close to my house on a mound near Rang Sharda.
Than they split some girls pose as Hijras clapping their hands and beg at Linking Road , the moment they see me they run , these are kids I know since they were toddlers .
There is love stories among these beggars too , young couple falling in love at the traffic signal, the parents dont mind provided there is a child in this arrangement the new born child is the money spinner .. he keeps money coming in.
This lady with her child is from one such beggar tribe I shot her near the infamous Shastri Nagar slums of Bandra abutting the railway tracks .
Eid is a day for beggars to work hard and catch the prospective generous soul and let the money keep coming in .. mostly they get coins as these Muslims are mostly poor too workers and laborers .
So the child that begs early learnt the tricks of the trade in his mothers battered womb.. and he comes out with his hands stretched and the eponymous beggars bowl.
