M A I N   N E W S

Beggars’ courier service ltd
Raman Mohan

Hisar, December 23
Beggars in Haryana have unwittingly found a new way to boost their incomes. Business establishments with limited advertising budgets are using beggars and their familiarity with different areas in various towns to deliver unsolicited mail to the letter boxes of potential customers at a fraction of the cost of routing these through post offices or courier services. The junk mail neatly bundled in white envelopes usually contains handbills or other publicity material and occasionally chain letters aimed at appeasing various goddesses.

Inquiries reveal that beggars are paid 10 to 20 paise per mail article for their services. This is peanuts compared to postal charges (lowest Rs 4) and courier charges ranging between Rs 5 to 10 per mailer depending upon weight. While most beggars do not mix begging and delivering junk mail, there are quite a few who prefer to mix the two while making rounds of their areas. They normally keep the envelopes hidden in their bags and quietly shove one into the letter box. Others just make quick rounds of their areas delivering the mail as efficiently as a veteran postman and making another trip to seek alms later in the day.

This ingenuous courier service is believed to have begun about three months ago and has now diversified into delivering “rasam pagri” cards also since unlike wedding cards no one expects the bereaved families to do it themselves. Such cards, if posted, cost the same as a postcard. Beggars do it much cheaper.

The commercial establishments that patronise the service include beauty parlours, slimming centres, teaching shops, small shopkeepers and upcoming small businesses. Explaining the phenomenon a local slimming centre owner said he could not afford to advertise in local eveningers. “Inserting handbills in newspapers in the morning was also not an option since most readers do not bother to throw even a cursory glance at the handbills delivered along with the newspapers. The choice was restricted to delivering unsolicited mail in letter boxes as nobody throws away a neat looking envelope. It was then that I heard of beggars doing the job of almost nothing. For two months now I have been using their services”, he added.

Ramdeen (51), a beggar who claims to have pioneered the idea, said during his rounds of various colonies he noticed courier services’ boys delivering mail. “It immediately struck me that I could do this job too. However, no courier service wanted me since I looked like a beggar. It was then that I requested the owner of a beauty parlour where I spend the nights to let me deliver his mail. He agreed and there has been no looking back since. Then word spread quickly to others of my ilk”, he said, adding that he earned about Rs 40 to 50 a day from this “side business”.