The Alms Trade

At Burdwan, beggars make so much money that they are lending it out at low interest rates.

When petty traders and street hawkers in Burdwan, a town in West Bengal, want a loan, they turn to beggars. Nearly a dozen of them are giving loans at interest rates so low that they are preferred to big moneylenders.

Seeking alms is a profitable pursuit for the beggars who station themselves at the town’s bus terminus, rail station and temple. They earn between Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 a month and even more during festivals like Durga Puja. “We cannot spend all the money we earn. We live in shanties and cannot wear good clothes or eat in restaurants because our benefactors may see us and stop giving us alms. So, many of us save a lot of money,” says 50-year-old Suresh Dhara, who has been begging at Burdwan railway station for four decades now. 

“Since we cannot put the money in banks, some of us have turned to lending out small sums to small traders. We charge 6 per cent interest, while the big moneylenders charge 10 to 12 per cent. So, many traders prefer borrowing from us,” Suresh adds. 

Had it not been for Suresh, Ganesh Das would not have been able to set up a stall to sell fruits at the town’s bus stand. “I took a loan of Rs 2,500 from Sureshda. I’ll always remain grateful to him for helping me,” says Ganesh. Bablu Das, who sells garments from a makeshift stall at the same bus stand, takes loans frequently from beggars Kanai Rajbangshi and Sheikh Samad Ali to meet his working capital requirements. “The big moneylenders will give loans only to traders with large shops, not hawkers like us. So they [the beggars] are our only option. Since we meet them daily and have a good rapport, they feel confident to lend us money,” says Bablu. 

Ali, afflicted by polio, says he has lent Rs 30,000 to six hawkers and has been in the money-lending business for more than two decades.

Burdwan municipality chairman Apurba Das says he got to know about the business six months ago, after one beggar, Krishnadas Thakur, drowned while bathing in a pond and left behind a cloth bundle containing Rs 75,000. “That’s when I came to know that many beggars earn a tidy sum and even lend others money,” says Das.

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