The
life attains its meaning only if it is well lived. A life is well
lived when it is useful and helpful to one's own family, the society,
the nation and the world at large. The help rendered may be very small
but if every human being does it to his/her level, the world would
altogether become a new place to live in. There is a misconception
that one can serve the society only when one is rich and well off.
Social concern and social service are attitudes borne out of the "values"
that one follows in life and not driven by richness of money. Even
greater misconception is that service to society is charity and voluntary.
It is definitely not. If a family member is perennially sick and struggling
for life, no matter whatever is the income to the family, the members
of that family can not lead a contented and happy life. There won't
be peace in that family. Similarly, when a society or nation is afflicted
with many ills, even those who are economically well off can not lead
a secured and satisfied life. The recent earthquake in Gujarat and
the epidemic in Surat that ravaged Surat a few years back did not
leave even the rich. If the poor died on the streets, the rich died
in the nursing homes or under the crashed cars. Even if the rich is
feeling secured in this generation, can anyone guarantee a similar
secured life for their progeny if the degradation in environment,
ever-increasing poverty and violence grows unabated. None of us would
like our kids to grow in an environment like the ones that currently
prevail in Afghanistan and Somalia. Based on this logic, it should
be clear that the social awareness and concern for remedies are not
merely charities or voluntary services but responsibilities and duties
if only we would like to leave a proper society and a safe nation
to our progeny.
In the twenty-fifth article of this
column, let us do a soul-search as to our contribution to the society
where we live. If this article would strengthen the principles of
those who are committed to improve the conditions of our surroundings
and provoke those who have similar bent of mind, that would be the
real strength and success of this website "nilacharal" and this column
"Rajan Dharbar".
Soul-Search
Recently the Supreme Court in India passed an order that a central
government official would loose his/her job if he/she employs a child
as a servant in his/her house. Have we ever taken a minute off our
busy schedule to ask ourselves the need for such an order and also
as to why the child labour exists in India on such a large scale?
Why are we indifferent about the spreading Dengu fever in Chennai
(Madras) till it affects our child? We know very well that if Chennai
is the preferred location for this Dengu fever it is because of Coovam
river and the poor drainage system in Chennai. Did we bother to make
this as an election issue in the recently concluded local body elections?
We spend hours and hours in choosing a silk sari for our wives for
the ensuing Deepavali and may even take the pains of going all the
way to Kancheevaram to order the sari and buy it from the place where
the silk saris are woven. Did we ever take a minute (not hours) to
check the fact that child labour is highly prevalent in this (silk)
industry? Did we ever bother to question ourselves whether we should
wear such saris even at the cost of lives of hundreds of poor children?
Did we ever atleast bother to do the repentance for wearing such silk
saris woven by children whose hands are supposed to be busy is learning
and writing?
Did we ever question as to why the algebra and the study of cell
should be uniformly taught to all children? The kids who want to earn
in future for a reasonable life need to be taught vocational skills
along with the limited formal education to transact with the bigger
world. But we teach them in the name of uniformity all the stuff that
they do not relate the education to the purpose of their life. This
makes even their parents to take them off the schools at an early
stage and put them on such jobs which are run on the foundation of
child labour (silk weaving, fire crackers, leather tanning to name
a few).
Reaction to Calamities
It would be an intellectual arrogance if I keep on writing with the
presumption and prejudice that majority of people is not aware of
social needs. The response to recent calamity in Gujarat (earthquake)
was simply amazing. It moved everyone's heart and that is why there
was such a spontaneous reaction. If we react to calamities so spontaneously
why are we indifferent about some of the subtle but deep routed social
menaces? Would we react only if something goes out of hands or something
is publicized? Why are we pretending that we do not recognize that
small subtle aberrations are the ones which become/lead to big calamities?
We learnt from the experience of the Bhopal gas tragedy, but we are
still indifferent to any such dangerous factory/operations in our
nearby locality. We have learnt the magnitude of tragedy from Surat
incidence but we are still fooling ourselves that Coovam river that
flows across the Chennai city is not that venomous and dangerous.
Why don't we get to the bottom of such menaces and identify the reasons
and try to eradicate them when we are given time by the nature. Should
not the intellectuals educate the less privileged brethren? Social
responsibility is not an emotional response to calamities but a well-thought
attitude towards designing and implementing both the protective and
remedial measures and alongside creating a major awareness. Simple
acts of us are enough if all of us involve ourselves. The time, energy
and monetary requirements are insignificant. ....more
