Monday, November 05, 2012

Stopping begging mafia

Begging mafia operate by kidnapping children and forcing them to beg. They give food to these children and take away the earnings. The ethical dilemma is that if you give money - you are supporting the business and if you don't children are going to starve.

One way to get out of this would be the use of food-coupons which expire. The begging mafia works because money intended for food or education can be used for anything. If we give food coupons to beggars they can buy food and only food with those coupons. If these coupons don't expire, they will become some sort of currency which can then be exchanged for money. By making them expire we insure that they are used for the purpose they are intended for. The expiry could be as small as today and as large as may be a week. We don't even need to print these coupons. It can be easily managed by a mobile app that gives you a number which you can write on a piece of paper and give to anyone you want. The person can give it to anyone who accepts this coupon, who can check if it is valid using his mobile, may be by calling or by sending sms. May be you can get these number before hand so that you can write them down/take a printout and just "activate" them when you give it to someone.

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