Anupam- The Dreamer

In the recent past, there were many “zero civic sense” memes that went viral on social media, wherein the creators highlighted the poor civic sense amongst us Indians- on the roads, in the markets, in public places, aboard trains etc. It does not take you far from your home or around your office to see that the litter is spread everywhere, the roads are fragmented with potholes, haphazardly parked vehicles, non-adherence to traffic laws, etc. In general, it can be summed up in the general sense of evading responsibility by all involved- whether the civic society, local governments, corporates, NGOs, businesses etc.

It makes one ponder that ultimately who is responsible for the problems that plague our society at large? We can say that – I don’t litter, but poor people litter; it’s not my job to fill potholes, rather the municipal corporation should have done it; I park nicely but people don’t park vehicles in the designated places, etc. etc. Basically, we try to shift the burden of responsibility on others in any which way! As a society, I feel that we are not raised in a way where people own up responsibility for their follies! Why? The reason is simple- because we are not allowed to fail in life and failure is seen as something to be avoided at all costs! So, we cannot accept the failure and hence try to shift the blame on others for all failures, whether in reality they may be attributable to us or to some other person. We also don’t accept that there is some problem with anything, atleast not with us! We try to ignore problems. Air pollution- we say we can’t do anything about it! Water pollution- we say that it is government’s problem! Traffic problem- we say that police is not doing its job effectively! And we can go on and on and on……

Basically, we as a nation, in general, are excellent in doing “panchayati” about problems facing our society, city, state, nation and international affairs as a whole! And I am afraid to admit that I am in no way immune to this “disease” of “doing panchayati”! We have opinions about everything- people at local barber shop discuss everything from the national elections, corruption in bridge project, to political equations, to India-China and India-US relations. Similarly, if you happen to travel by train, you can overhear people blaming xyz politicians for all the problems in their own life. We love to gossip! We love to blame others! And we so love to evade responsibility! Basically, its like- मुझसे कुछ मत करवाओ, बस मुझसे बातें करवा लो, उसी में मैं माहिर हूँ।

The reasons for this attitude is, inter alia, as mentioned above, the fear of failure, the sense of apathy towards problems, low confidence in our own abilities to solve problems, lack of initiative to take action and “chalta hai” attitude! Till the time, such things don’t directly affect us, we don’t act! For example, people don’t want to save water till the time there is some water supply problem in their locality and there is acute water shortage! Another example, people will not follow traffic rules, till the time they know that traffic police is on alert today. People don’t hold their local netas accountable for the local problems like potholes, garbage management, etc. because they feel it is the netas job to do so, and our responsibility stops at casting vote and electing him (many don’t even do that).

You can extrapolate this attitude at the level of business also. The companies feel that it is not their job to clean rivers and air and land, so they can put any amount of harmful waste into the rivers, dust and poisonous gases into the atmosphere, waste into the landfills! They will say we are paying taxes (some even don’t pay their fair share by evasion), so it is government’s responsibility to do this cleaning. The businesses are busy in making more profits, by hook or by crook! Some of them even shirk responsibility towards their own shareholders, employees, and the local population that they affect.

This attitude of evading responsibility can be found everywhere, in some measure, in some form or the other. At the level of bureaucracy and governments too. Not just in our country, but also in other nations too! But, what if we could inculcate this basic thing in ourselves and society around us? We all have sense of entitlements for everything in ample measure! We should get this from others, from the governments, blab la bla. But, what if this sense of entitlement is accompanied by sense of responsibility as well? We don’t get a right to receive something, if we are not willing to give something back to the society. It is very individualistic thinking, selfish attitude and narrow-mindedness to think that we don’t owe anything to the society around us. We have taken so much from the society since we were born, from the people around us, from the people that even left this planet before we were born, from everyone, including nature, fauna and flora!

So, what if everyone behaves in a little responsible way, in their own capacity, with their own skillset and knowledge, with their own resources, and try to think of some solutions to everyday problems and work upon those too! What if businesses, civil society, NGOs, governments also act a little responsibly? What if all of us can work on the principle of exchange- giving and receiving, rather than just receiving? What iff…..

There are a lot of great examples around us who have contributed immensely with their own little capacity, limited resources and time, to improve situation around us in manifold ways. Maybe, we can also take a leaf out from their lives and act a little more responsibly!

Till next time….