People
BBC Study Finds Sikhs Most Generous of All Communities
JOHN BINGHAM
Religion preaches help for the poor and loving thy neighbour but now a new study has provided evidence that it can also make people more generous in their everyday lives.
Research commissioned by the BBC found that people who profess a religious belief are significantly more likely to give to charity than non-believers.
Sikhs and Jews emerged as the most likely to share their worldly goods with a good cause, just ahead of Christians, Hindus and Muslims.
Among those polled, ALL of the Sikhs had given money in the past month.
So had 82 per cent of practising Jews. Among practising Christians, the figure was 78 per cent.
The study, carried out for the BBC's network of local radio stations, included polling by ComRes of a sample of more than 3,000 people of all faiths and none.
It found that levels of generosity across the British public are strikingly high, but highest among those with a religious faith.
Overall as many as seven in 10 people in England said they had given money to a charity in the past month. But while just over two thirds of those who professed no religious faith claimed to have done so, among believers the figure rose to almost eight out of 10.
The Revd Dr Martyn Atkins, general Secretary of the Methodist Church, said: “Religious faith should motivate people to acts of generosity and it’s good to see this reflected in these figures.
“Of course, financial giving is only part of the picture.
“For some people, a simple act of kindness, or the very fact that someone has made time for them, can mean more than any financial gift.
"But every act of generosity, however small, bears witness to a generous and loving God and helps to change the world for good.”
[Courtesy: The Telegraph. Edited for sikhchic.com]
June 10, 2014
Conversation about this article
1: Balwant Singh (San Jose, California, USA), June 10, 2014, 9:10 PM.
Sikhs give a lot of donations in sizable amounts to charities other than Sikh organizations, compared to other communities. Everybody helps his/her own community but Sikhs are taught to help anyone and everyone, regardless of race, religion and color, in the name of Guru Nanak, who started this. We say in our daily prayer: 'O Almighty God of All, please help and bless the whole universe ..." Our daily prayer includes even the enemy and, of course, all 'others'.
2: Bhupinder Singh (New Delhi, India), June 11, 2014, 1:55 AM.
Of late, all our charities are being directed to ostentatious and mostly gaudy gurdwara buildings. I wish we had something on the scale of the Red Cross or Salvation Army.
3: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), June 11, 2014, 3:58 AM.
@2: Khalsa Aid does some amazing work in the UK and in Punjab. The organization in my opinion has a good mission directive of helping all people but also identifying which areas of the Sikh community need help. They recently handed out rickshaws to some of the survivors of the 1984 riots.
4: Amandeep Singh (Delhi, India), June 11, 2014, 11:10 PM.
Sikhs are certainly generous but they are spending way lot of money on langars and making bigger buildings for the gurdwaras. Even if half of the funds spent on langars and new gurdwara buildings was spent on helping the poor, providing education, vocational training, training on substance abuse, we will bring about a huge change.
5: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), June 12, 2014, 7:58 AM.
The danger lies in who you are giving the money to! All gurdwaras and sangat members need to learn the balanced way of giving to deserving causes.
6: Sarvjit Singh (Massachusetts, USA), June 12, 2014, 9:25 AM.
Sikhs are indeed generous. However, we are generous with no strateguc goals. For e.g. free food (langar) is always boasted as our main charity. At the same time, almost no one trusts the management of gurdwaras. Under such circumstances, I will stick to my own charitable cause that I can direct myself. My wish-list: gurdwaras in prime locations in cities like Toronto, New York, London, right in the downtowns, not away. Visible presence of community centers, sporting clubs, etc.
7: Tarn Kaur (Singapore), June 12, 2014, 11:04 AM.
We as a community may not directly donate to organizations but when there are our people around the world, we as a community are there for you to rely on. We are always ready, willing and able to fight for what is righteous.
8: Rup Singh (Canada), June 12, 2014, 9:32 PM.
Langar is an essential part of Sikhi and served to all who respectfully join the pangat. It's not a matter of boasting but carrying on something the Gurus started. Something to be humbly very proud of. Of course, Sikhs and gurdwara committees can do more. Many Sikh fundraisers are done for hospitals in Canada and for disaster hit areas. United Sikhs do great work, there is the Seva Food Bank in Ontario, for example. The Sikh nation does blood drives in many parts of the world. Many do good work for their respective home communities back in Punjab, such as schools and free eye camps. I think sometimes we are too critical of ourselves. Let's focus on what we think should be done and not overlook the good that is actually happening.
9: Rajinder Singh Bajwa (London, United Kingdom), July 06, 2014, 7:23 AM.
Sharing is one of the three basic principles of Sikhi and most of the Sikhs adhere to that. It does not mean sharing with your own community only, but with everyone, irrespective of their race, creed or colour. Langar is an important institution of in Sikhi. It not only provides free food for the needy, but also promotes the principle of sharing as well as the equality of all human beings regardless of their status in society. In my opinion, the people at the helm of affairs of the community should divert more money towards the promotion of educational and vocational facilities for the young.