Just another Tuesday

The 30th of September 2008 marked the first Navarati. It was just another Tuesday in the lives of the 10,000 or so people who had lined up to seek the blessings of the Hindu Goddess Chamunda Devi at the temple inside the historic Mehrangarh Fort near Jodhpur. A rumor of a bomb planted somewhere in the temple complex started a stampede that killed over 147 people and injured many more. Many are struggling for their lives in hospitals that are ill equipped to handle such a rush of patients. It would be a miracle if more people were not killed by lack of medical facilities and proper treatment.

A study that Times of India, a highly credible newspaper in India, published today shows that in the last ten years 4341 people lost their lives in 14 incidents of stampedes. It is no solace that 690 deaths occurred in India and the rest overseas since precious human lives were lost needlessly, which I think is criminal. In contrast the World Trade Center strikes on 11th September 2001 killed around 2792 people according to CNN.com.

It is not my brief that what the attackers did in New York was in any way justifiable. It definitely was an attack on the United States and the American way of life. It was certainly a criminal act that needs to be condemned vociferously and the culprits, whoever they may be and wherever they may be hiding, need to be brought to justice and punished severely after due process of law. I am certain the American people and their judicial system ensured a fair trial to all accused.

Consider for a moment the amount of media space spent in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. If one tracks column centimeters, 9/11 would have generated more than a few million pages in the American newspapers indicating the angst of the American people. Simultaneously security in public places was beefed up and systems put in place to prevent any such incident. In almost seven years since 9/11 those systems seem to be delivering expected results.

In contrast we see lop-sided media coverage of incidents in India. Twenty dead people in a bomb blast in Delhi get extensive coverage lasting for weeks. Readers are given news, background stories, expert views and political statements, opinion polls etc. on various aspects of the incident. Seven times more people died in the Jodhpur stampede. The story made the front page today. But there were no screaming banner headlines like September 14 2008, the day after the recent bomb blasts in Delhi. The story will in all probability go cold in 2-3 days and a week later Indians would be hard pressed to recall where the Chamunda Devi temple is.

It is ironic that a few people killed in a bomb blast triggered by a terrorist outfit gets so much attention and media space & time. The politicians get hyperactive and are seen baying for blood, but such incidents of stampedes in congregations at places of worship that happen with alarming regularity evoke nothing more than tokenisms. It must evoke a strong sense of outrage and collective anger. No sincere and visible effort is made to ensure that such incidents do not recur. Till such time that we continue to be fooled by tokenisms by the ruling elite, human life will continue to be lost. Only when the administration is held accountable and made to pay for their lapses would such avoidable deaths end.

On closer and rational analysis this kind of incidents can be easily avoided. A study of the practices adopted at some places of worship like the shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirupathi, the Golden Temple at Amritsar, the shrine of Khwaja Chisti at Ajmer Sharif and Mata Vaishno Devi temple amongst many others will show that a few simple practices can lead to orderly conduct of large congregations.

The religious shrines are managed by boards, which have local eminent persons as their members. These are mostly local merchants who work voluntarily, part-time and with an aim to gain social acceptance. Most of them are also patrons and fund many projects undertaken by these shrines and they want to do an honest job. It is equally true they are not trained administrators. In public interest the government should bring an ordinance that mandates the following acts in such shrines:

1) All shrines must record the daily count of all visitors to the shrine with a view to proper planning of facilities and operating procedures.

2) All shrine boards must have a member who has served at least at the rank of Inspector of Police to advise the shrine boards about crowd management. They must be registered with the central government and made to undergo periodic training on these skills.

3) All shrines must seek permission of the local administration for organizing such congregations after they have demonstrated compliance with crowd management systems as indicated by the ex-police officer member of the board.

4) All shrine boards must be permitted to charge a nominal amount for entry to finance crowd management systems. Public address systems must be installed at all shrines. Shrines must permit entry of a small batch of people only. Proper barricading and fencing must be installed to ensure stampedes are arrested at the outset. All structures must be periodically tested.

5) All shrines must arrange suitable number of volunteers to assist the police in managing and guiding devotees. Adequate number of ambulances and doctors should be on call as per established norms whenever permission is granted to arrange such large congregations.

6) In the event the shrine board defies norms the board must be superseded and the administration should takeover the shrine. Any board that is in charge of a shrine at any time must be held accountable for the safety and security of the devotees. A board that is not able to cope with the sudden surge in number of visitors should be allowed to temporarily close down the shrine.

Many multinational corporations these days devote a large amount of money and time to meet Health, Safety, Security and Environmental (HSSE) concerns. At Castrol BP, my previous employers, no meeting would start before the HSSE Manager had briefed the assembled people about the safety procedures to follow in case of a fire and the location of exit points. When the practice first started we would mock the company’s paranoia about safety but once the realization sank-in we became the torchbearers for the cause of health and safety.

Making schoolchildren study HSSE would ensure that we have a crop of young men and women who as they step into adulthood are aware of the steps to be taken and avoid the safety pitfalls and ensure precious lives are preserved. I feel any amount spent in this effort would be more than recovered even if one human life can be saved.

image courtesy http://www.nydaily.com/