Inspired by an article in the travel forum regarding the exploitation of children.

I think most of us have encountered the "flower girls" often working late into the night, or the Mother and baby blocking the walkway or sat blocking the stairs to the MRT in Bangkok.

What would you do about these beggars?

Do you give money to them?

Are they exploiting their children or just trying to feed the family?

Whats your view and how would you deal with it ?

Do you have people begging like this in your area?

double post deleted

Question is also, where to draw the line:

helping the parent a few hours every day is no problem.

But as you tell the girls staying on the street all the night is a big problem. I doubt the girls are going to school, or?

Unfortunately the government is busy with corruption instead of taking care of the poor.

Years ago, when I spent a lot of time in Mexico, it was very common to be approached by young, hungry looking children asking for money or selling "Chiclets" ( small packs of chewing gum) for a few pennies.

It was believed by most that if you gave money to these children, their parent would step out of the shadows, take the money from the child and buy drugs or alcohol with it. The child would not be fed with the money you give.

My solution to this was to walk the child down the street to the nearest food vendor and buy the child a meal. ( the vendors are everywhere in Mexico).

In Thailand, I avoid the bigger cities and town as much as possible, and don't really see much begging in the rural areas.

If I did, I would use the same method of helping the children that I did in Mexico.

back in the 80's whereever you drank you would see this every night,are they the parents or gangs that have bought these kids.i once bought some food and a new denim skirt for one little girl i used to see regular only for her keepers to <deleted> her for taking them instead of money.its a good call ch.and its hard not to react.

Charlie .....you have posted a number of intense subjects....and well received they were...BUT ...never really see what your thoughts or solutions are..

Now this is all being said respectfully ....and really am interested as you are a pretty intense thinker....

What is YOUR solution or thinking on this problem?

Charlie .....you have posted a number of intense subjects....and well received they were...BUT ...never really see what you thoughts or solutions are..

What is YOUR solution or thinking on this problem?

My own opinion, Thailand sadly does not really have the infrastructure and welfare organisations to support the action, but if it was possible, I would have them removed immediately and taken into alternate care. The parents of the children should be ashamed, if they want to go begging thats up to them, but dont "use" the children in that way.

The way they block stairways etc is not only a safety hazard but a menace and they should if necessary be forcibly removed from such places.

Then you have the darker side, where gangs or groups actually trade these children to work in this way, the children are forced to make money and often threatened and worse if they accept anything other than cash as stated in a post above. These individuals in my opinion should be horse whipped !

One last point, according to things I have heard and read, many of these on the streets in Bangkok are not actually Thai, they are apparently from Myanmar.

I have never seen children being used in this way in other than high tourist areas, beggars yes, usually severely disabled, clearly cannot work etc, but never children, as I believe the Thai family structure and sense of community in the more rural areas would not allow it.

It's indeed a sad situation for which there is no easy answer. Maybe the individual approach of buying food etc. works sometimes. Maybe the restaurants' training street kids idea works sometimes, as in Hanoi and other places. But western values about life and death ARE different from many Asian countries.. Most westerners are long past the days when you didn't know when you would eat a meal again. Basic survival is still the norm for many people throughout Asia.The little girl on the street at midnight offends our sensibilities, but its not odd for many Thais. This in a country that absolutely loves children.

For me the long term solution is about education for women. A study some years ago, I think it was UN, said that the education of women was the single most important factor in determining whether or not a developing country would survive, not the economics. Secondly, don't give in to begging, as much as you might want to. I know a few travel companies that are very strong about this -including Intrepid Travel and others whose main business is trekking tours in the region.

Finally, if you really want to give money, give it to a village school, to buy books or shoes, - that does make a difference.

I like to buy 'en an ice cream cone or bar.

I've been told by Thais to ignore them, but it's easier said than done.

Next time you see one, or encounter one, ask (if not alone) your local friend/partner/etc where the kid is from.

The answer my friends is blowing in the wind.

They are normally not Thais.

Anyhow, so sweet to read the Mexican story, by someone who can be suspected of either never have been here or being naïve.

Would like to see the reaction among people (and Police?) when a grown up (and older?) western man walked down the street with a flower girl, in order to do something else than do flower business.

Those of you in Cambodia know what I talk about.

if you think this is bad, in Australia we had very young aboriginal girls(10 to 14) offering oral sex etc very cheap at the local shopping centres near my house. The mother and father were sitting nearby in the gutter drinking alcohol from bottles in paper bags, as soon as the girls had money the parents would snaffle it and buy more grog. Kids were wearing rags and were underfed, if you offered to buy them food etc they called you a white c**t and told you to <deleted> off, same if you refused their services so thais are a little better than this.

Since we don't really like having the same topic running in multiple places, why don't we close this one and use the one I opened in the Travel forum? Especially since it was directed towards travelers. OK?

Please refer to here:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/681010-tourism-children-at-risk/

Topic Closed.