Poverty: Roots/Causes

Karachi is a city of many people who have fallen through the cracks. In an industry closely tied in with human exploitation begging exists as a symptom and in many cases a cause itself of many other forms of abuse. I don't give that easily to the beggar on the street, but after being surrounded by so much poverty, I'm not sure. What is the correct response when abject desperation looks you right in the eye?

Somebody must do something. Are you listening, politicians of Pakistan?

The photo is actually of a beggar from Udaipur, but it serves the purpose of illustrating the kind of approach that is made daily on my regular commutes around Karachi.