A few years ago, when we walked down the road, we always saw people on their knees begging. They were always dressed in tattered clothes, and their eyes revealed a pitiful look. But has anyone noticed that these "beggars" seem to be rarely seen on the streets in the past two years? What's going on here?
Throughout the ages, beggars have been a special community in urban life. They are ragged and tattered, living by begging, and are at the bottom of society. But in recent years, these "special" figures have gradually disappeared from the streets of cities.
A decade ago, beggars were everywhere, huddled on street corners begging for mercy or spreading their hands in crowded places in the hope of handouts.
But now, whether it is a lively commercial street or a deserted alley, it is difficult to see beggars anymore. This change is really thought-provoking.
The reason for the disappearance of beggars is, in the final analysis, due to the progress and change of society.
The country's poverty alleviation policies and social security system have been increasingly improved, providing strong protection for vulnerable groups.
Since the 90s of the last century, the mainland has formulated and implemented a series of poverty alleviation and development policies, adopted the form of "one household, one book" to accurately identify poor households, support the development of characteristic industries in poor areas, and increase the income of local farmers.
Tea farming in Simao, Yunnan Province, is a success story, with once-impoverished Yi villagers now living a well-off life.
In cities, the government is also promoting a comprehensive minimum livelihood guarantee system, providing basic living expenses for special groups who have lost the ability to work, and carrying out rehabilitation and employment projects for the disabled, so that they can also earn dignity with their own hands.
Some of the once homeless poor are now able to escape their hardships.
It can be said that the original intention of the policy of poverty alleviation and social security is to enable everyone to live a decent life and no longer become a beggar begging for food.
As a result of these policies, many people who would have relied on begging for their livelihoods have improved their lives, and the number of beggars has naturally decreased significantly.
At the same time, the environment of the begging industry itself is undergoing drastic changes, and the beggar community that has been based on it for a long time is also difficult to sustain. At first, beggars relied on winning the sympathy of passers-by to obtain handouts, but over time, the people became more wary of them.
Some "professional beggars" will even do things that are unjustified in order to obtain more alms, such as mutilating children, imprisoning others, and exchanging pity for money.
This kind of frenzied behavior undoubtedly aroused strong public disgust and disgust, and people became more and more reluctant to give to them anymore.
On the other hand, the pandemic has been a devastating blow to the begging industry. Years of epidemic prevention and control have led to a sharp drop in the flow of people, a large number of public places have been closed, and beggars have nowhere to beg, and some can only leave their hometowns and return to their hometowns.
But in the strange countryside, they also have nowhere to stay, and their hearts are full of confusion and despair. The three-year pandemic has dealt a devastating blow to the industry.
Not only that, some incidents of violence against beggars have caused public outcry, which has caused the beggar community to suffer social discrimination and exclusion.
For a time, the image of street beggars was stigmatized, and they lost the space to live in the city. For a variety of reasons, begging as a career model will eventually decline.
Although the disappearance of beggars reflects economic and social progress, it also allows us to see some people who have been forgotten. Looking back at history, we can see that beggar communities have existed for a long time, but their situation has always been ignored by society.
In ancient times, beggars were often homeless in wars and natural disasters, and they barely survived by begging.
Speaking of which, they were actually part of the weak in society at that time. Even so, under the feudal hierarchy, there was also a deep-seated discrimination against beggars among the aristocracy.
In modern society, beggars have begun to become the "new poor" of society, and they may have lost their financial resources for various reasons, so they can only beg on the streets.
As a result, the rich look down on them, the poor are jealous of their easy money by begging, and the beggars struggle to survive in the cracks of society.
Nowadays, with the abundance of material life and the progress of society, people should have a broader mind and empathy, but it is a pity that such empathy has not been generated by this.
The beggars still suffer from social discrimination and exclusion, but this exclusion is more often invisible and imperceptible.
Therefore, the disappearance of beggars brings us not only a joy of social progress, but also a kind of thinking. In this seemingly civilized era, where is our care and tolerance for the bottom of society?
Everyone deserves to live a life of dignity, which is a right, not a handout that needs to be begged for from others.
Only by building a truly fair and just society and eliminating all prejudice and discrimination against vulnerable groups can we truly cross the "age of beggars" and move towards a new era of more civilization and empathy. #我要上热门# #动态连更挑战#
