Who choose to beg

I am intrigued by man's attraction to live by panhandling.
Why do able bodied people,who can live by labor,choose to live by begging?
Why is it so difficult to rehabilitate those who have lived long by begging?

"Like prostitution, begging is one of the two oldest professions on earth.Although varying by geography and the times, begging is universal. We have heard,even the richest countries like America and England have beggars in one form or another",a beggar in Kolkata sharply retorted back.
Where is their sense of self respect?Why is that not as universal?

The Indian government department responsible for elimination of panhandling,say that even after a prostitute or a beggar is sheltered and offered protection,in some form or another,she resumes her old habits.She cannot depart from her former way of life.
The social workers too have a similar opinion.Hence there is an immense amount of apathy on this issue.

Why is it so difficult to settle vagabonds?Why do slum dwellers,relocated to government housing,return to slums,eating,defecating,sleeping,raising children in the same area?Why don't the little tramps stay in school?

Reasons why people take to begging are numerous,often complex.

For instance,in India,poverty is real.But simple economics frequently falls short to explain begging. Very often,it is done in organized gangs,also,beggars here are very territorial.Breach of territory can lead to violent skirmishes.
Beggars have equality of sexes in their community.The woman can cohabit with any man and change whenever she so wishes.The children are independent and learn different trades like pick-pocketing,petty crimes,assisting professional thieves,acting as informants,peddling stolen goods etc,before they graduate to begging.
For some,begging is a family profession.For others, period of begging varies widely,from five minutes to a lifetime.
Sometimes needs can be very specific.Two little boys were begging for cigarettes on the Puri Beach once.When they were offered some money,they refused and ran away.
But many times the elderly, the disabled, and the destitute take to begging.

Beggars in India,have some degree of understanding of the human psyche.
When you step out of a famous restaurant,satiated,they realize you cannot refuse a hungry man.When you are walking in a park with your new girlfriend,they know you will yield,when pestered a couple of times.They crowd outside temples,because they are aware most people will give them money to score divine-brownie points.They can read faces well enough to target the right person who is sure to be moved by a story of a dying husband.The husband of course,could be in the next street begging in the name of his dying children and similarly the children could be in the third street with stories of dead parents.The transvestite gang-members can see that you will handover a 10 rupee note to avoid nuisance,especially in those long-distance trains.

But government organizations,reform houses,religious shelters,social workers,psychiatrists,psychologists and the whole of intelligentsia have failed to decipher the panhandler's psychology ,enough to be able to defeat it.

In Denmark,a prosperous country,I have seen beggars in the main streets and the city-center of Copenhagen.Their style of operation is very different from India.They approach you,stand very close,stroke your back and ask you to lend a coin as if they have known you for years!
A Danish colleague told me,all of them receive handouts from the government,but by the middle of every month - that cash is exhausted on drinks.Although this is an over generalization,her assertion reflects a common belief.Project UDENFOR researching on this phenomena in Denmark,attributes begging to foreign homeless migrants,many from Romania.They hasten to add that people who beg are from a mixed group.
A cross-country comparative analysis reveals Danish beggars are passive in their procedure while Russian beggars are more aggressive.
Though Begging is prohibited in Russia,it is not illegal hence it remains a grey area,coupled with Russia's corrupt administration,trafficking and begging remains a menace there.
In U.S.A,I have lived in a posh Boston suburb.Homeless people who beg there are very casual in their method of appeal.They live in shelters where they are fed,clothed,and all their basic amenities are met.But just like the Govt officials in India had said ,they find it hard to get over their old habits.

In the U.K,where I currently live,begging is illegal.The Vagrancy Act of 1824 makes it an offence to sleep on the streets or to beg.Although illegal,there is no associated jail sentence.
This Act was originally introduced in England and Wales but later extended to Scotland and Ireland.
Until recently it was believed that the Vagrancy Act 1824 had largely withered away through lack of use.But the sharp rise in the number of beggars in British cities and antisocial behavior of some aggressive beggars led to begging being made a recordable offence in December 2003, as part of the Government's initiative to handle crime.

Contrary to the public perception that beggars use the money for drugs or alcohol,researchers in the UK tell us ,begging here is driven by need.Charity organizations,civil groups and lib-dems had criticized the Government's move in 2003 as 'ineffective'.But the law remains today, at least on papers,and unsurprisingly,it has changed nothing.

Is there a universal solution to this phenomena of living by begging?Or perhaps it should be tackled on a case-by-case basis.Alas,I have only questions.The matter which I can unquestionably point out is the universal lack of political will to touch this job.