Editing Begging (section)

===India===
[[File:India - Kolkata street beggar - 3246.jpg|thumb|A street beggar in [[India]] reaches into a car (Calcutta Kolkata)]]
Begging is an age-old social phenomenon in [[India]]. In the medieval and earlier times begging was considered to be an acceptable occupation which was embraced within the traditional [[social structure]].<ref>{{Cite journal|title=The Administration of Beggary Prevention Laws in India: a legal aid viewpoint|last=Pande|first=B.B|publisher=International Journal of the Sociology of Law |volume=11|year=1983 |pages=291–304}}</ref> This system of begging and almsgiving to mendicants and the poor is still widely practiced in India, with over 500,000 beggars in 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/over-4-lakh-beggars-in-india-west-bengal-tops-the-list-among-states-1207034|title=Over 5 Lakh Beggars in India, West Bengal Tops the List Among States}}</ref>

In contemporary India, beggars are often stigmatized as undeserving. People often believe that beggars are not destitute and instead call them professional beggars.{{Vague|date=May 2018}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.storypick.com/professional-beggars-in-india/|title=6 Professional Beggars In India Who Are Probably Richer Than You & I|date=2015-07-25}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=May 2018}} There is a wide perception of begging scams.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://goindia.about.com/od/annoyancesinconveniences/p/indiabegging.htm|title=India Beggars and Begging Scams: What You Should Know|access-date=2016-03-22|archive-date=2017-03-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305094915/http://goindia.about.com/od/annoyancesinconveniences/p/indiabegging.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> This view is refuted by grassroots research organizations such as Aashray Adhikar Abhiyan, which claim that beggars and other homeless people are overwhelmingly destitute and vulnerable. Their studies indicate that 99 percent of men and 97 percent of women resort to beggary due to abject poverty, distress migration from rural villages and the unavailability of employment.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=People Without A Nation: the destituted people; A documented outcome of the national consultation on Urban Poor: Special Focus on Beggary and Vagrancy Laws- the issue of De-custodialisation (De-criminalization)|author=AAA, Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan|year=2006|location=Print-O-Graph, New Delhi|page=8}}</ref>