Voice of a Responsible Citizen; Are You Listening India?
7:26 AM Posted In January 2009 Edit This 0 Comments »To my view, a country’s status quo on development is identified by its infrastructure. I went down one day searching whether this self made fact is correct or wrong. But I got stuck with confusion as the streets down my building seemed ruthlessly coated with red saliva strains. This time, I got in a dilemma whether to underestimate or overestimate my country. As an optimistic person I never wanted to underestimate. Though, I became very speculative not about our technology and infrastructure sector but about our law enforcement agencies.
Chewing of things such as Guthka, Paan and others develop the tendency to spit frequently. This waste thrown on street provides fertile space for bacteria to grow and spread diseases. So it’s just like a ping pong ball game where you spit and the spitted out waste hits back in the form of various diseases. In fact, we are killing ourselves. The largest democracy in the world and birthplace of various religions needs posters of Gods and Goddesses on its walls not the red blots of Paan or Guthka.
The same callousness can be seen in the issue of public smoking. On October 2nd 2008, a law passed against public smoking. But, I still doubt the proper implementation of that much needed law. It’s been said that each single cigarette reduces one day from one’s life. Yet, these hair-raising statistics doesn’t motivate one to quit. Sadly, the urge to soil our public properties to damaging our ecology, have mixed in our blood. We, Indians are in the forefront too, when it comes to diseases. Various efforts such as print, electronic advertisements and public awareness campaigns have been taken by the government to influence and motivate people. But, more money needs to be spent and also new ideas should be welcomed to eradicate such social iniquities.
I still remember the other day my friend expressed her anxiety when she forgot to take needles in her purse as a self defence ‘weapon’ towards eve-teasing especially in crowded places. It made me thoughtful about the plight of women in my country. I sometimes think, is it the country once led by Jawaharlal Nehru, who told, “The development of a country can be reckoned by assessing the status of its women.” The statistics show that a girl is molested in every hour. It’s not a very good picture for a developing country like India.
Social evils don’t confine to just eve-teasing, public smoking or spitting but many more are taking place under wraps. At the dawn of ‘India Awakening’ I wish the bureaucratic focus could be more on social issues rather than in changing names of cities or laying foundation stones for shopping malls. Genuinely, our nation is in a wounded state, it needs healings immediately. The need of the hour is less rhetoric and more action.
Debashri Banerjee
Chewing of things such as Guthka, Paan and others develop the tendency to spit frequently. This waste thrown on street provides fertile space for bacteria to grow and spread diseases. So it’s just like a ping pong ball game where you spit and the spitted out waste hits back in the form of various diseases. In fact, we are killing ourselves. The largest democracy in the world and birthplace of various religions needs posters of Gods and Goddesses on its walls not the red blots of Paan or Guthka.
The same callousness can be seen in the issue of public smoking. On October 2nd 2008, a law passed against public smoking. But, I still doubt the proper implementation of that much needed law. It’s been said that each single cigarette reduces one day from one’s life. Yet, these hair-raising statistics doesn’t motivate one to quit. Sadly, the urge to soil our public properties to damaging our ecology, have mixed in our blood. We, Indians are in the forefront too, when it comes to diseases. Various efforts such as print, electronic advertisements and public awareness campaigns have been taken by the government to influence and motivate people. But, more money needs to be spent and also new ideas should be welcomed to eradicate such social iniquities.
I still remember the other day my friend expressed her anxiety when she forgot to take needles in her purse as a self defence ‘weapon’ towards eve-teasing especially in crowded places. It made me thoughtful about the plight of women in my country. I sometimes think, is it the country once led by Jawaharlal Nehru, who told, “The development of a country can be reckoned by assessing the status of its women.” The statistics show that a girl is molested in every hour. It’s not a very good picture for a developing country like India.
Social evils don’t confine to just eve-teasing, public smoking or spitting but many more are taking place under wraps. At the dawn of ‘India Awakening’ I wish the bureaucratic focus could be more on social issues rather than in changing names of cities or laying foundation stones for shopping malls. Genuinely, our nation is in a wounded state, it needs healings immediately. The need of the hour is less rhetoric and more action.
Debashri Banerjee
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