Random Thoughts:Our Society and Culture

Let’s be fair and treat each other as human beings; not as somebody’s somebody;

An upset and enraged chauffer of a wealthy business person (a friend of mine) barged out of the man’s office. (I will call the chauffer Ali Mohammed).I stopped him and enquired why he was upset. Ali Mohammed, still upset, not responding directly to my query blurted: “I am a respectable man. I have dignity; I have a family and earn my daily bread”.I urged him to calm down and asked what had happened? Ali Mohammed after drinking a glass of water said that he was seated in his boss’ office till a man arrived. The moment that this person had entered the boss’ office, the boss had asked Ali Mohammed to leave. This had upset  Ali Mohammed. The chauffer felt that this had outraged his dignity especially because the person in contention was a good for nothing man. He was in his fifties; lived off his family and basically scrounged from society but given that he came from a “good family” and spoke English, Ali Mohammed’s boss entertained him and asked him to leave. Ali Mohammed had a point and it was neither based on self righteousness nor squeamishness. The whole sage reflected the hierarchical nature of our society wherein dignity and respect accrues neither from a person’s achievements nor how a person makes/earns his living but from ascriptive status in society. This status may be premised on “family background”, inherited wealth or any other feature other than a person’s own achievements and merit. In other words, the dignity of man/woman in our society flows from extraneous and other aspects. Whether this attitude stems from history or the convoluted growth and nature of our society, it needs to be remedied. We must respect people/persons for their intrinsic worth, their merit and individual achievements than anything else.

Prudent human resource management and fair hearing of complaints will save people from coming to grief;

As I was driving towards home on the 9th of January- a day observed as Hartal in Kashmir, a police wallah hailed my car. I let him in my car and we soon struck up a conversation. The man was upset because he had been transferred to an “outpost”. He narrated his plight to me and then stated that he was not cut out for “public dealing”. He also had stuff to say about the relationship between the officer class and the “ordinary” post bearers. He said that some officers either under appreciated or did not appreciate at all the gruelling nature of the work of those in the field. Some even felt entitled to harass the “lesser” ranked officials so much so that the only option left for those at the receiving end of the ire of higher officials. The example he cited was that of a cop who had decamped with an AK-47. Although the police wallah had no firm evidence to back his claim but what he said made sense. “The obvious choice for a person who’s harassed and sometimes humiliated is to rebel in a way that is in the nature of payback to the harassing officer”. This may have motivated the cop who decamped with the rifle, ‘the police wallah said. “Look Sir, I am a family man. I have children so I think twice or thrice if I am at the receiving end but others who don’t can be impulsive”.  There is a broader point here: the lack of human resource management in Government Departments and genuine ombudsmanship in organizations. Issues-hierarchical, operational, organization and even personal- can be sorted out if adequately trained human resource personnel deal with these. Much anguish and pain can be averted.

Private players with conscience and integrity  must plunge into the education sector;

I met an anguished parent-father of a teen who had passed the 12t standard exam- the other day. The parent was worried about the quality of education that was imparted in Kashmir. The parent wanted his son to get high quality education but was constrained by resources; he could not afford him to send overseas, was worried about the safety of his ward in Delhi etc. This set me thinking. There is an extant supply-demand mismatch in Kashmir in the domain of education. Quantity does not stand up to scrutiny. Much of higher and secondary education is bedevilled by issues of poor quality. And existing the state is not an option for many if not most students for financial, cultural or other assorted reasons. There then is an education gap in Kashmir. But there is an obvious remedy. The Government can do only so much in this domain; it is hamstrung by legacy, systemic and other issues. An opportunity stares private players of the state in their face. They can , either by themselves or in a PPP mode fill the glaring void in education in Kashmir. Of course, key here will be integrity, accountability and a sense of responsibility towards society. Profits will automatically flow. Prudence then dictates an approach where a synthesis between the state and markets is employed with a fine balance between provision of public goods and the profit motive. If this comes to pass, parents of Kashmiri students will not come to grief and our children will benefit from education which will be defined by effectiveness, efficiency and equity.

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