The testimony of the friend of the
Delhi gangrape victim on Zee News held up a disturbing mirror to our society.
The gross callousness, cowardice and voyeurism displayed by the bystanders, as
well as the cars and autos that passed by the badly injured gangrape victim and
her friend, proves the truth of the popular saying: "yatha raja, tatha
praja (the quality of the rulers determines the quality of the subjects)".
However, in a democracy — even a
flawed one like ours — citizens cannot disown their responsibility and wait for
rulers to set things right. A democracy gives you some scope to turn this
saying on its head: "yatha praja, tatha raja (the quality of the subjects
determines the quality of the rulers)".
A common reason given by people
coming to the rescue of victims of violence or road accidents is that the
police not only harasses such do-gooders, but also tries to implicate them in
the accident. As perverse as the police is in India, my experience tells me
that the police know the difference between honest and crooked citizens. The
real problem arises when the police are already on the scene but neither doing
the needful nor letting citizens help the victim.
My first encounter with the
voyeuristic tamashbeen mentality of citizens was when I was eight or
nine. I had gone to Connaught Place in Delhi with an aunt who was just past her
teens at the time. We were walking in the inner circle of CP when we saw a car
moving at high speed hit a young man with such force that he was sent flying in
the air before he crashed to the ground. People picked him up from the street
to prevent him getting run over by other cars, but did not go beyond dumping
the profusely bleeding and badly injured man in the verandah of CP's inner
circle. They just stood and watched as though it was a scene out of a movie. I
suggested to my aunt that take him to a hospital in a taxi but she pulled me
away, saying it was not good to get involved in such situations. I was too
young to have my say on that day.
Bus smashes boy's head, The body lies unattended on the road |
But the memory of that writhing
body and citizen passivity left such a deep imprint that without any formal
declaration, I made a vow to myself: I would never walk away when a fellow
citizen needed my help. Since then, I have taken several accident victims to
hospitals. As luck would have it, in each case the person's life was saved due
to timely medical help, even when the victims had suffered brain haemorrhage.
Since I began doing it much before
I came to own a car, it was always auto rickshaw drivers who agreed to carry
the victim to hospital. Car owners did not help even once. All I had to do was
to assure the auto driver that I would assume full responsibility for taking
the injured person to hospital and that his name would not be brought in at
all.
Here is a somewhat melodramatic
but true to life example of the deadly consequences of our indifference to
fellow citizens. I was still a student in those days, and was travelling on a
Delhi Transport Corporation bus when I saw two young men bleeding on the road
after their two-wheeler was hit by a speeding bus. I got off the bus and rushed
to the accident site. A big crowd had gathered around the injured men. A few
motorists also stopped to have a peek. None of them agreed to help me take the
two men to hospital. I waved at every car that passed by. None stopped. Finally
an auto driver agreed on condition that his identity would be protected from
the police. The doctors at the hospital told me that since both had suffered
brain haemorrhage, further delay in medical help would have meant certain
death. Imagine my surprise when two months later, the two young men, along with
their respective fathers, came to our house to tell me that both of them had
passed the accident spot and seen me trying to stop passing cars to carry the
victims to hospital. They too had stopped momentarily, looked from a distance
at the injured men, but decided to drive away, thinking, why invite trouble?
The elite cannot build islands of
prosperity and safety for themselves amidst a sea of lawlessness and uncaring
citizens. This callousness doesn't stop at unknown victims of violence or
accidents. It also extends to immediate neighbours, close relatives. It saddens
me no end when people from far and near places phone Manushi to say my
daughter, sister or such-and-such woman in my neighbourhood or extended family
is suffering daily beatings and might end up dead. In most instances, families
and neighbours expect distant organizations or the police to come to the
woman's rescue.
A more effective way of combating
domestic and other forms of violence is for each neighbourhood to create its
own helpline and rush to the rescue of the woman being battered. Once families
know they are being watched by their neighbours, who will not hesitate to bring
in the police if the abusive behaviour is not halted, they do invariably act with
more restraint.
Even the best police force cannot
be a substitute for a caring and vigilant neighbourhood. For example, when a
young man in my old neighbourhood was caught trying to molest a teenage girl,
leading families in the neighbourhood simply blackened his face and made him go
around the block of houses in his underpants with folded hands saying, "I
seek forgiveness for my misbehaviour". This happened 25 years ago, but the
message went home good and proper. From then until I left the area, one never
saw young or old men indulge in offensive behaviour. I don't think a police or
court case would have achieved the same result. In fact, it would have
traumatised the victim further and in all likelihood led to acquittal, or her
withdrawing the case due to the soul-destroying legal process one is subjected
to.
However, such exemplary social
control mechanisms can evolve only when we maintain active links with our
neighbours and develop a culture of routine acts of sharing and caring. By
living atomised, disconnected lives, we are endangering our own lives. Our
families spend a great deal of energy in teaching us to be
good sons, responsible daughters, caring sisters, mothers, wives, husbands and
so on. Our schools and colleges hammer us to be good disciplined students. But
neither family nor educational institutions train us to be responsible
citizens, starting with our own neighbourhood. Instead, we discourage our
children from getting involved. If we all take charge of our neighbourhoods,
the rest will follow automatically.
This article was first published
in: http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/next-time-don-t-walk-away/1059969