A glaring contrast

When the Kosi river breached its embankments, changed its course by over a hundred kilometers, flooded vast areas in North Bihar, caused a great amount of destruction of standing crops and uprooted millions of people from their homesteads. One saw people scampering from their fragile habitations, which were on the verge of collapse, with their frugal assets be it a few heads of cattle, a bit of jewelry or some utensils. We saw the Indian army mount a mammoth rescue and relief effort, securing vast areas to avoid loot and plunder by the unscrupulous elements who like vultures feast on human misery, in their effort to make a fast buck. The government agencies responsible have been largely missing in all the action.

This is in stark contrast to what one saw in US when Louisiana was flooded after Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of young and not so young men and women volunteered in the run up to Katrina hitting the US east coast. One saw the civil administration gainfully utilizing their efforts in sand bagging the embankments of the River Mississippi, making public announcements, informing the general population about the preventive measures to be taken, helping convince people to evacuate to safer areas and actually helping in the evacuation process. The police was seen intensifying patrolling to ensure there was no loot or plunder by robbers. After the hurricane hit the coast and flooded vast areas, the volunteers were engaged in rescue work and once the storm abated the same groups helped in providing relief and in re-building homes devastated by nature.

We have witnessed a great outpouring of sympathy from the Indian people. Millions of employees, in places thousands of miles removed from Bihar, have contributed a day’s salary for the Bihar Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Many more have sent their contributions through special funds set up by large media groups. Many non-governmental organizations have set up relief camps and offered cooked meals, set up temporary camps and arranged medical facilities. It speaks volumes about our desire to do good for those less fortunate.

One also read reports of jewelers in small towns buying gold ornaments at a fraction of the current gold rate taking a moral stand they are helping preserve lives by providing instant cash in time of need and that life is more precious than gold. While nature’s fury is known to abate with passage of time, human greed knows no such limits. It only intensifies with each passing day. The stories one hears each day are more ghastly than the stories one heard yesterday.

‘Why is it that natural disasters and calamities always bring out the beast of greed amongst us?’ is a question that has bothered me since the time I read reports of the calamity in the press. If as a community we want to be seen as highly concerned and charitable then why is it that on a personal level we look at such disasters as a means of getting rich quickly at the expense of someone devastated by nature’s fury? Frankly I could think of no one single reason.

Social scientists tell us that in attempting an answer to this question one needs to look at the psychological, sociological, moral and financial reasons responsible for such behavior. Since I have no pretensions to understanding these complex issues, I can only say what appears to be commonsensical. The distribution of economic resources in India is unequal among social groups and also amongst various geographies. The effects of such catastrophes are felt most by those in a certain geography and belonging to a certain social grouping.

The well-heeled buy mental peace and social comfort by giving away a few thousand rupees, usually some discarded garments and soon-to-expire medicines and looking the other way as if to say their job is over. These resources then reach another group who pocket the proceeds from selling a major part of it, throw some crumbs at the hapless and believe their job is done. The government agencies are normally the last to arrive and show the audio-visual media evidence of large piles of relief material arriving at special roadside camps. These agencies, their camps, the relief materials and the politicians disappear as soon as the media goes away.

Strong moral values imparted through ten years of structured moral education will definitely help. A strong sense of community, socially useful and productive work would become a norm. Every child would be encouraged to put in at least a hundred hours of community work per year. The marks scored in academics and the grades earned in social work would be considered at the time of admissions for higher education. I believe moral education in one’s years at school would help forge strong character. It would also ensure that the Indian people would volunteer for such charitable and humanitarian missions.

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