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[luiz_iniciante]

Hello Forum,
                On the few occasions on which I stray off campus and into the downtown area, I'm always surprised by the sight of children begging. Even on cold days and at night, one can see them doing what they have no doubt been trained to do: clinging on to the leg of a passerby until he or she is forced to toss them a few coins in order to be released. What surprises me even more is that this all happens under the noses of the police, who must be aware that the minders of these children are usually no more than a few meters away.
               It would be bad enough if these children--usually girls, who can be no more than 4 years old--were doing this as a necessity to support their families. But I have been told that they are run by a mafia which kidnaps or buys them in the countryside. The whole operation strikes me as incredibly heartless, cowardly and stupid (there have to be better ways to make money than this). Even if one does not take a sentimental view of the plight of these children, one can at least see that it is in public interest to act, since these beggars will probably be the petty thieves and prostitutes of tomorrow.
              I have no desire to offend my extremely gracious hosts, interfere in the internal affairs of the city or otherwise make a nuisance of myself. But this problem seems to me reasonably easy to remedy, at least at the local level, and so I wanted to discretely leverage the Hefei Expat forum. If anyone here is friendly with a public official or a member of the policeforce, then why not mention that this is a blight on the city. Better yet, if anyone here is friendly with someone in the media, suggest an editorial in the local newspaper or a five minute segment on the local news. That should raise enough indignation to force the authorities to take action.

Regards,
           L

[Aussie Mike]

so true...

This topic does get published in the newspapers every so often but never really makes any difference.
Some of the kids are quite infamous in their antics to extract money from you, they tend to focus on young uni student aged girls and block their way and keep harassing them until they pay up. The kids are abused if they don't get anything so they try harder. I've watched these kids extract up to 100 rmb in an hour. It works for them so it will never stop.

[luiz_iniciante]

Thanks for your two cents, Mike. I think though that one can discriminate a little more between the classes of beggars in Hefei. There are the older ones (young teens, dwarves) who do as you say: they target young women (though not exclusively) with behaviour that is harassing but not dangerous or even really threatening. Different people will take different views on the more or less chosen profession of these beggars, and as a native of an even bigger city (Rio) I am content to dismiss it as a mere nuisance of urban life.

But what I think most people would condem is such pitiless exploitation of girls as young as four years old. They do not even get to keep what they earn, and they are trained to do something that is wholly undignified and unnatural to a child: to boldly run up to and grab hold of strangers, male and female, old and young alike. In a place like Rio, no child would dare do this, because there is a good chance that his actions would be responded to with real violence.

My point is that if these children were forced to work the same hours in a button-making factory, there would be a little more public outrage, and so I am surprised that this begging is tolerated, and so openly at that. The last time I was at the train station it seemed to be going on right outside the office of the police. As one who likes Hefei and has a little spare time, I find the question interesting. Where do these children live? Do they go to school? And who are the competent authorities that one can bug a little about this?