Indian coin sellers

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India is a country teaming with enterprise – from quacks doing cataract operations in the middle of the road to children selling hand-made cards to passers-by. At Haji Ali Dargah, a mosque and tomb, just off the coast of Mumbai – even the beggars are entrepreneurs. Most devotees like to hand out coins to the hundreds of beggars who line the road, wailing piteously to Allah, but few are willing to part with big bills. In response, some beggars have started a coin-change business, making it easier to give alms. Linda Blake has this report.

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JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp and this is The World.  Two out of every five people in India earn less than $1.25 a day.  So you’ll find beggars in every city, at traffic lights and tourist spots.  But India is also teeming with enterprise.  In fact some beggars at the Haji Ali Dargah Mosque in Mumbai have become entrepreneurs.  They’ve started their own coin change businesses as Linda Blake reports.

LINDA BLAKE: 40-year-old Rajya Khatun sits on a windy coastal road surrounded by beggars.  Muslim pilgrims weave their way past her towards the Haji Ali Dargah.  Khatun’s clothes are faded and her skin scorched from hours spent in the searing heat.  Ten years ago Khatun was just another beggar wailing for alms.  Now she’s a chillerwali.  She makes change.  Khatun skillfully stacks coins on a wooden slab.  She makes piles of 50 paise, one rupee and two rupee coins.  About one, two and four cents respectively.  Hundreds of pilgrims approach her each day with big bills.  Khatun hands them back a mountain of shiny change minus her ten percent commission charge.

TRANSLATOR: First I used to beg; I didn’t have that much sense.  Now I sell change.  I looked at other people and followed their example.  I collected change little by little and then started to sell it.

LINDA: It’s a self-sustaining business.  Visiting pilgrims go to Khatun to change bills for coins, which they hand to the beggars.  Beggars, not wanting to lug around heavy coins then bring their change earnings back to Khatun in exchange for fresh bills.

TRANSLATOR: If our change stock is depleted we take a little from the beggars.  Did you see how the beggar children just came and gave us coins?

LINDA: Khatun earns two to three dollars a day making change.  That’s about double what she used to as a beggar.  When she was begging she struggled to feed her five children.

TRANSLATOR: When I talk about all this I feel like crying.  It’s better if you don’t ask me about this.  It has revived my sorrow.

LINDA: Khatun was able to put that behind her when she saved up enough coins to start her business.  She is now one of five coin sellers on the road to the Mosque.  And they’re wary of new competitors.  Khatun says if anyone sits in front of her she’ll chase them away.  After all a spot on this stretch can’t be taken for granted.  Thousands of pilgrims come every day to pay homage to the Muslim saint who built the Mosque and charity is one of the five pillars of Islam.  Arif Nadaf walks down the road dropping coins in every beggar’s pail.  Sometimes he buys coins from the chillerwalis; most times he has his own stash.  He doesn’t believe he is encouraging begging.

ARIF NADAF: I’m not encouraging but we are just the mediators that God has given us.

LINDA: He says he’s just a mediator.  God has given to him so he is giving to them.  But not everyone is so generous.  Begging and hocking in a public place are against the law.  Khatun says she grabs her children and runs whenever she sees the police.  Still, she’s satisfied with what she has managed to accomplish.

TRANSLATOR: We don’t want wealth; we just want to fill our stomachs.  What would we do with wealth?  Can we take it with us when we die?  It’s just going to remain here.  I’m sitting here with dignity outside this big saint’s tomb.  That is enough for me.

[KHATUN SINGING]

LINDA: For The World I’m Linda Blake at the Haji Ali Mosque in Mumbai.

JEB: Nergish Sunavala contributed to this story.  You can see Linda Blake’s audio slide show of the coin sellers at TheWorld.org.

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