Begging for mercy: can subway panhandling be stopped?

Photo released by The Beijing News shows a child beggar entering the metro.

Photo released by The Beijing News shows a typical scene of subway begging.

(ECNS) -- If you ride the subway on a regular basis in China, it's likely you've encountered the beggars, some of whom are gruesomely disfigured or can be uncomfortably invasive when it comes to getting your money.

Regulations that forbid the practice have been unable to stem the tide of panhandling in many of the country's metro systems. During the first eight months of last year, 9,006 cases involving subway begging were investigated in Shanghai, and 962 beggars were scurried off to relief shelters, yet the practice continues.

Moreover, metro beggars are not all as disadvantaged as they appear. Many are in fact engaged in well-organized criminal behavior and pose a threat to subway security.

Lucrative career

The motives behind begging in big cities vary: circumstances force some into it, yet others regard it as a full-time occupation.

In the case of Chang, a young mother, it was her two-year-old son's illness that brought her to Beijing from Gansu province three months ago. Desperate to save money for medical fees and unable to afford the cost of living in the capital, she says she had no choice but to seek help by begging, dragging her sick son along with her.

But it appears that she is in the minority. In Nanjing, as many as 80 percent of the beggars who haunt the metro lines are "professionals," according to the local newspaper Modern Express.

These careerists work eight hours a day like regular commuters, and can bring in 400 yuan daily. The more experienced make as much as 1,000 yuan a day, far better than many white-collar workers in the city.

A number of full-time panhandlers in Nanjing have yearly incomes of more than 36,000 yuan (US$5,863), equal to the per capita disposable income of the city's urban residents in 2012. And of the 10,200 begging cases the city's subway authority has handled since 2009, as many as 80 percent involved beggars who were fit to work and did not even come from impoverished families.

One beggar who had pretended to be disabled owned an expensive mobile phone and carried a passport and exit-entry permit to Hong Kong and Macao, says Li Bin, a staffer at the management office of the Nanjing metro.

Stolen sympathy

On Beijing's metro line 10, several photos of a female beggar accompanied on various occasions by different teenagers were posted recently on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, sparking concern over the possibility of children being forced to beg.

A large number of children are kidnapped every year in China, and many are used by crafty beggars to gain sympathy from people on the subway.

Some "professional" beggars even rent their children out to other beggars for about 200 yuan (about US$31.75) a day, according to a Xinhua report.

Competition among panhandlers can also lead to disputes, some of them violent. Disabled beggars, who hold a privileged status, have reportedly attacked other beggars who invade their territory.

Chang, the mother from Gansu, says she and her son were beaten by several disabled beggars on Line 5. "They stole my cassette player and beat us with sticks."

A losing battle

Last August, as part of a campaign called "Say No to Beggars on the Metro," Shanghai police published a list of beggars who had been caught most often on subway trains over the past four years.

Posted online by the Xujiahui Police Station, a 22-year-old man who had been caught 308 times topped the list. An 88-year-old woman, caught 292 times, was runner-up.

"Police sometimes feel helpless because they can't do much about the beggars, as no 'strong-arm tactics' are allowed. We can only educate them," said a 28-year-old subway worker surnamed Zhao, who is in charge of maintaining safety at Xujiahui Station.

Usually, beggars are taken to the metro police station, where their violations are recorded and they are given a warning. But the toughest penalty is only a fine, so many beggars return to the trains and end up being caught again.

Police officers have tried to help beggars by sending them to rescue shelters, but career beggars do their best to avoid such places.

Additionally, the professional breed are usually well organized. Once they have been stopped by police, they will contact fellow beggars via cell phone to help them avoid being caught.

Experts suggest the government should classify beggars and then treat them according to their circumstances.

Tang Xiaotian, vice secretary-general of the Shanghai Law Society, says those who organize or force others to beg should be punished. He also says police should publish information about professional beggars and organizers to help people distinguish between the destitute and the dishonest.