When did giving become so complicated?

We’ve all seen those pictures of Indian children in tattered clothing on the streets begging for money or food from passing cars and pedestrians.  It breaks my heart every time I see them.  There is a particular intersection on my way home from work where they swarm the cars as the light turns red, peering sadly into the windows trying to catch my eye.  Once they do, they start pleading in Hindi.  Even though I do not understand the words, I know what they are asking for.  My first instinct is of course to want to give them something, but then other thoughts flood into my head.  If I give one child something, will she share it with the others or will she keep it for herself and gloat about it?  Or will the larger boy bully her into him my offering?  Or is she, like in Slumdog Millionaire, a beggar working for gangsters?  What is my social responsibility?  In my desire to do some good, would I actually cause more harm than good?  How do I weight the negative versus the positive impacts?  Conflicted into inaction, I bow down my head and avoid their gazes.  The light turns green, my car speeds away, and I breathe a sigh of sadness. 

Sad that something as simple as giving a little bit of money to someone on the street has become so complicated.  Has it always been so or have I only now been clued in to the different dynamics at play?  I remember as a child, walking down the streets of Hong Kong holding my mom’s hand, where homeless men sitting along sidewalks were not an uncommon sight.  Those on the routes we took frequently became landmarks for me, as they seemed to always be in the same spot, reassuring me that we were on the right track.  Once in a while, my mother will press a coin or bill into my hand and nudge me towards one of them.  Giving a shy smile, I would drop the donation into his bowl.  In those innocent acts as a child, did I accidently cause a rifts between the homeless men?  Did I perpetuate his panhandling “job” because he made more money this way than with a real job?

When did giving become so complicated?

(I apologize for the lack of pictures in this post.  You need only to google “Indian street children” to see what I see.  Taking pictures of the specific ones along my route for the purposes of this blog just felt wrong.)