I remember, as a little girl, I used to flip through the glossy pages of magazines like ‘India Today’ , ‘TIME’ and ‘Frontline’ scattered on our coffee table and stare at the colorful pictures. For a girl of eleven, things like proper governance and crime didn’t hold much of an importance. But while I sat there and pretended to read, I often came across big words that I did not understand. One such word that my mind faintly recalls was ‘paradox’.
Almost ten years later, I ponder over that very word. If I am asked, what is the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear ‘paradox’, I’d say India. Why? It’s because I live in a country, which boasts of over 53 billionaires but has 269 million people who live on less than US$ 1.25, per day. I live in a country which devotes a special 10 days to worship, celebrate and seek protection from ‘Ma Durga’, but which is shamed by the fact that a girl is raped every 22 minutes. I live in a country that is proud of having 8 nobel laureates but is tainted by the reality of having almost 270 million adults who are illiterate. This sort of incongruity that exists in our country is what gives it such a paradoxical nature.
But what bothers me more than these statistics is the attitude of our nation. Out of the 1.237 billion people living in India almost a billion people remain indifferent towards all societal issues. There are scores of people who hear someone talk of a new case of a sexual assault on a minor and remain silent. They see their neighbor getting domestically abused by her husband and look the other way. They see an imbecile break a traffic rule and bottle in their frustration. They see people getting bullied and choose to be mere spectators. They take a walk in a beautiful park and merely observe someone engage in vandalism. And they will most probably read this and nod their head in silent acquiescence but will completely forget about it in a few minutes.
Sure, there are a couple of displays of solidarity that we see from time to time. Candles are lit in remembrance & respect. Protests, marches, fasts, petitions- they are forgotten as fast as they are conceived. What remains amiss is a continuous objection against all wrongdoings. You don’t have to set out on a march on a hot, humid day to show your distaste towards such things. All you need to do is to change your attitude.
It is time to speak up and get the wrong doers noticed. To change society’s mindset about caste, creed and religion. To give confidence and support to a victim of assault so that she may report the said assault. To stop your friend from wasting his life being ‘high’ on drugs. To stop yourself from doing something utterly stupid because you were ‘too’ drunk. And to not only blame politicians of corruption, but to point out that almost everyone indulges in a corrupt activity in their daily lives. What every Indian needs to do is kill the ‘indifference’ that is very steadily creeping into our society. If it goes unchecked it will prove to be one of the biggest social maladies to affect India.
The world suffers a lot. Not because of the violence of bad people,But because of the silence of good people!
~Napoleon Bonaparte
Oui, Monsieur!! It’s high time we take the words of the French leader to heart and do our bit. It’s little actions by individuals that together make a significant difference.
