Giri at 1730hrs on 27th November
What is the value of human life in India? All of Indian politicians and most bureaucrats will answer this question with a lie and a straight face – we truly hold life as invaluable, they would aver! And most Indian parents will look at the person posing this question with contempt as they live in a fool’s world that they value their precious childrens’ lives higher than those in other parts of the world. And yet, several incidents that were reported across India, during the week that went by, seem to confirm what most Indians all know deep within themselves – that human life in India is rarely valued for its inherent sake and for the potential that it can aspire to attain. Be it the tragedy of the Doon Express fire or the death of a Mumbai school boy due to a combination of badly-designed and installed billboard on a lamp-post and badly-designed window cross-bars in the school bus that the boy was travelling, (or the long-drawn struggle for criminal justice and fair compensation in cases such as the Uphar cinema case or the Bhopal gas tragedy) Indian society is yet to comprehend that in this particular aspect we are still amongst “barbarians” and have to cross several chasms of legal, educational, economic and political value systems to be considered truly developed.
So are there innovations that can facilitate Indian society to cross these chasms? How about taking a clue from the Responsive Care approach that many chemical giants initiated in early 1980s? Perhaps each large employer (employing say more than 200 people) can initiate a CSR programme, for its employees and their families, that aims to (a) advocate and establish the importance of safety and security, (b) support in adopting insurance products, (c) support in legal and financial assistance to those that need any. The government can allow such companies to avail some tax benefits for expenses incurred in such programmes! Other smaller employers (say those who employ 20 or less) may perhaps need to mandatorily send their employees to a day of interactions with the closest CSR programme of a larger company.
Wishing you a great week ahead.
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