It was a news item that was both shocking and frustrating. The headline in HT today spoke of a young man who had had an accident at a railway station, and had to wait for over 45 minutes for an ambulance to take him to a hospital.
Before I go further, here are a few facts, all quoted from the same article:
‘The railways do not have a single ambulance available at any of their 103 stations.
There used to be 18 ambulances run by a concerned citizen who himself lost a limb in a rail accident. He withdrew the service after the railways demanded that he pay them parking fees and regularly commandeered his vehicles to go vegetable shopping.
About 25 people are injured and 10 people killed on the suburban railway tracks every day, as a bursting- at- the- seams service struggles to accommodate a third of the city’s 18 million people.’
This, in Mumbai, the commercial capital of the country and a city modeling itself on Shanghai. This is the state of the ‘lifeline’ of the city, the suburban railway. On the one hand the city administration talks of a multi pronged approach to develop Mumbai and turn it into a ‘world class’ city. On the other hand it can’t provide basic amenities to its teeming millions. What is even more shocking is that it is unable to support the efforts of citizens who try to make a contribution. And this is the sort of dichotomy that people seem to have learnt to accept.
What has always struck me as odd is all the hullbaloo that is created about the ‘spirit’ of Mumbai every now and then. When the serial bomb blasts happened in local trains a couple of years ago, everyone was talking about the spirit of the people of Mumbai, who were back on their feet the next day. Well, I ask you, do they have a choice? Everybody has compulsions, responsibilities, jobs to get to, errands to finish, and at the end of the day, families to feed. Not working or taking the day off, are prerogatives of the well to do, not of the common man who travels by train.
What might be more impressive, or perhaps disturbing, is that the people of Mumbai continue to travel by trains, without raising a voice against the conditions under which they travel, and the lack of safety and first aid mechanisms.
At the time of the bomb blasts, the number of deaths was a huge issue. Mumbai had lost many of its hard working, promising citizens to terrorism. What about the hundreds it loses every month to the apathy of its leaders? If we were to do the mathematics, guess who would emerge as the bigger evil.
And yet people have learnt to accept things as they are, because that’s the way they have always been. And because the common man is too busy earning his daily bread. Where does he have the skill or the time to write letters, sit on dharnas or file public interest litigations?
He is content as long as the trains run and he gets a foothold…
Before I go further, here are a few facts, all quoted from the same article:
‘The railways do not have a single ambulance available at any of their 103 stations.
There used to be 18 ambulances run by a concerned citizen who himself lost a limb in a rail accident. He withdrew the service after the railways demanded that he pay them parking fees and regularly commandeered his vehicles to go vegetable shopping.
About 25 people are injured and 10 people killed on the suburban railway tracks every day, as a bursting- at- the- seams service struggles to accommodate a third of the city’s 18 million people.’
This, in Mumbai, the commercial capital of the country and a city modeling itself on Shanghai. This is the state of the ‘lifeline’ of the city, the suburban railway. On the one hand the city administration talks of a multi pronged approach to develop Mumbai and turn it into a ‘world class’ city. On the other hand it can’t provide basic amenities to its teeming millions. What is even more shocking is that it is unable to support the efforts of citizens who try to make a contribution. And this is the sort of dichotomy that people seem to have learnt to accept.
What has always struck me as odd is all the hullbaloo that is created about the ‘spirit’ of Mumbai every now and then. When the serial bomb blasts happened in local trains a couple of years ago, everyone was talking about the spirit of the people of Mumbai, who were back on their feet the next day. Well, I ask you, do they have a choice? Everybody has compulsions, responsibilities, jobs to get to, errands to finish, and at the end of the day, families to feed. Not working or taking the day off, are prerogatives of the well to do, not of the common man who travels by train.
What might be more impressive, or perhaps disturbing, is that the people of Mumbai continue to travel by trains, without raising a voice against the conditions under which they travel, and the lack of safety and first aid mechanisms.
At the time of the bomb blasts, the number of deaths was a huge issue. Mumbai had lost many of its hard working, promising citizens to terrorism. What about the hundreds it loses every month to the apathy of its leaders? If we were to do the mathematics, guess who would emerge as the bigger evil.
And yet people have learnt to accept things as they are, because that’s the way they have always been. And because the common man is too busy earning his daily bread. Where does he have the skill or the time to write letters, sit on dharnas or file public interest litigations?
He is content as long as the trains run and he gets a foothold…
2 comments:
I'm hoping it will change, though. The media is definitely helping.
I guess we Indians have become immune to certain issues. Till we become a victim of one, we don't do anything about it. True, Mumbai had to be back in it's feet after the blast, because the people don't have the luxury to mourn their death. The affected ones were not the elite.
Post a Comment