ONE MORE RESCUE OPERATION

‘Suraj is dead’, was the one liner which one of the leading news channels gave soon after the hapless boy was pulled out of the bore well in which he had fallen into 52 hours before. Not the first child to fall in and not the first to die. Ever since, the widely televised rescue operation of ‘Prince’ was covered live, many more have fallen in, only to come out dead.

The public is exhausted of the nail biting suspense of watching and hearing of such agonizingly long operations and their subsequent failures. They are tired of grieving and they are tired of helplessly wringing their hands as by-standers. Like one of them, I too had tried to block my mind by switching off the TV, only to toss and turn all night and getting up in the wee hours of the morning to once again switch on the idiot box in the wane hope of hearing a happy ending. But, it has almost always been sad news.

But more than grief, now it is outrage and anger; anger at the abuse and callousness that we as a nation and as adults show to our children, especially poor children.

Is there never to be any accountability? And what is this entire hullabaloo about havans and yajnas being performed all over the country by a generally apathetic citizenry and the vulgar compensations doled out by equally unsympathetic governments? Money to shut the mouths of victims groveling in poverty! A small price for children they can anyway do without!

Is that all we are capable of? Will the laws and law makers of this land always let the perpetrators of such crimes go scot free? Will those responsible never be hauled up and their faces never shown to the public? Will criminal charges never be pressed against such offenders, whether individuals, organizations or governments? Why don’t the media follow up after the child is dead? Why don’t they expose such criminals?

Because, most of the victims belong to the poorest section of society. Their parents are daily wage earners; labourers who toil all day and their children, wallow by the sides, in heat, dust, rain or cold depending on which time of the year it is. No crèches, no day-cares, no ayahs or helps to watch over them while their parents toil to earn a few rupees to put food in their mouths at the end of the day. Parents, who can perhaps only watch from a distance and the corner of their eyes, as they dare not antagonize their contractors.

Are we to blame the children then for straying away and falling into death traps? Or are we to blame their parents for not taking good enough care of their wards? Can we even begin to imagine what it would be like for a toddler to be stuck in an eight inch diameter hole, in the darkest possible pit deep in the earth without light, food water; even without the familiar faces of those who love him/her?

And what about the huge cost involved in extricating these children? Who will bear it? Not the culprits we can be sure. And what about the loss of innumerable man hours, of the common and not so common people? People who include locals, government officials, doctors, engineers, army men and not to mention the media, watching these spectacles. And not to forget the man hours wasted by millions of viewers who sit glued to their TV sets, unable to do anything else because they just can’t get the distressing images out of their minds. And what about those who even get badly injured in doing these risky operations? Who will bear their pain?

And what about the huge amounts of equipment which are moved to these sites from other assignments, like cranes, earth movers, ambulances, trucks, army vehicles, staff cars etc, etc. Who will bear the cost of these?

No one in particular, but, everyone in general! At that moment of course, everyone wants to wear the Good Samaritan halo and enjoy even a little bit of glory; like the colonel who was basking in media attention, giving sound bytes to a hungry media.

Death of Humanity By Preeti Singh

Many months ago, I had been flipping channels, thoroughly bored with no decent entertainment ever being available on any channel, when suddenly I saw a man sitting comfortably, cross legged, holding a light to the corner of his shawl. For a moment, I did not understand what he was trying to do. Then, horrified, I realized he was trying to immolate himself. The action was slow, and there was enough time to stop him. But, instead people watched and the TV camera panned on him in a leisurely manner, waiting for him to turn into a burning torch.

It was a performance being enacted for the news hungry media; anything, to get a byte to shock the viewers. After all, nothing sends the TRPs soaring like fear and horror. Strangely, the whole episode had no shock value for those who were actually there and seeing it first hand. It was just another tamasha to be watched and then move on. He was not another human being just like them, who perhaps, in his desperation to get some empathy for his plight had announced this step. He must have hoped somebody would care, at least the people around him; commoners, media and the arms of law would save him before he actually took the drastic step.
A similar incident took place some months ago when one hawker in Punjab immolated himself in full public view. It is the last resort of utter helplessness of an ordinary citizen, when he cannot find a single ear to listen.

To ensure, such an incident never takes place, the authorities, panchayat, relatives, friends should not only make all attempts to thwart such an act, but also to take him into safe custody, since, there is prior information and is to happen in a public place. At the same time, whenever someone announces his/her intention to immolate himself, concerning authorities should help in negotiations with the people/organizations that are driving an individual to commit suicide; a suicide, after all, all he/she is doing is to draw attention to his unresolved issues.

Secondly, all those (including media) who stand around waiting and watching at the scene of crime and allow such an act to be performed, should be arrested and convicted for abetting suicide. It is the moral duty of one citizen to not allow another to kill himself before his eyes. Not like this at least. It is not as if, he had a gun in his hand. They could have overpowered him, even before he poured kerosene/diesel over himself.

But no, all those who stood around, merely watched out of curiosity and some even got irritated when he did not get it right the first time. They even expressed doubts on the quality of the diesel used. It was not just a crime against one person, but against humanity. What have we come to?

Today, somebody’s father, husband, son would have been alive.

The local thanedar should be held accountable and be booked for dereliction of duty. After all, all such immolations take place with due notice. It’s just that the lives of ordinary people don’t matter to anyone.

And lastly, the media should be taken to court for showing such footage, again and again. In not doing their primary role, that of the fourth estate, which demands they prevent rather than record such incidents, even if they can. Do they realize how many more children, teenagers, impressionable and depressed people they are pushing on the same course by the visual depiction? It is despicable, how some channels are so desperate for viewership, they will show anything, however gory and terrible it maybe. They were busy making commerce out of an individual’s grief. It is not just highly irresponsible journalism, but, also, complete human decadence.

The court could take suo motto cognizance and send notices to all those who were present, especially media and police, for not stopping the man from killing himself.

The Information & Broadcasting Ministry should devise some guidelines for TV channels, whereby, they do not cross the Lakshman Rekha, since; they have failed to regulate themselves.

And lastly, all those who were harassing him, asking for bribe and not talking to him, should be brought to book. After all, there is no smoke without fire!

preeti_tej@hotmail.com