A Tort for those who Distort

A recent case that made headlines in India was the case of a young Bollywood actor - Ranbir Kapoor - a heart throb of millions of girls – who are going head over heels for this cute chocolate hero.

Recently, the police in the state of Maharashtra caught Ranbir peeing on a highway. He was instantly fined 200 rupees - about US$4. Ranbir not only paid the penalty he also vouched never to repeat his act again.

Who knows? In future he might become an icon for dissemination of message of sanitation and hygiene among the masses!

The other example is of a few government buildings in Uttar Pradesh – an Indian state known for illiteracy, poverty and population – and for paan and tobacco chewing men. The corners of all public places – even hospitals are coloured red with paan spit. A few years back the administration in a few buildings enforced heavy penalties for spitting. And voila! Those buildings are now comparatively clean.

In the times of recession, India is emerging as one of the most favoured destination for tourism. Every year it is witnessing an inflow of millions of travellers from different parts of the globe.

Thus, now it is no secret that sanitation and hygiene stand last anywhere on the agenda in the Indian society.

All road sides and all corners at any place – even at the tourist monuments – serve as 'conveniences' for men – especially in the urban areas. The sides of all railway tracks function as free and open toilets for people in urban and rural areas, both.

All those who visited Mumbai for Global Forum on Sanitation in October 2011, witnessed the most common scene on their way to or from the airport to the conference venue – people in congregation squatting on the roadsides or near railway tracks. The sight was visible even from the five-star hotel where the conference was being held - there was a railway track next to the hotel located next to Powai lake.

Spitting on the road is a common phenomenon in India and throwing rubbish anywhere on the road is taken as a birthright by most people. The worst aspect of the issue is that the educated and urban society too, does not pay any heed to issues of sanitation and hygiene, at times.

In such situation a strict implementation of Tort seems to be a solution, considering the examples of Ranbir Kapoor and the government buildings where strict law coupled with a penalty showed positive results.

A Tort is a civil wrong. The word comes from Latin expression ‘Tortum’ – which means to twist. The English equivalent is ‘wrong’ and in Roman it is ‘delict. 

Tort covers all those acts which are twisted, crooked or unlawful. In simpler words – people are expected to behave in certain ways and when they deviate from that path it is said that they have committed a tort.

The suggestion should ignite a normal reaction that a strict tort law will cause violation of human rights – especially of those who are weak and marginalised (in case of sanitation and hygiene it is people who do not have toilets).

So the answer to that is that we – working in this sector - are already pushing the governments to improve infrastructure in the field of sanitation. Now the need is to imbibe the habit in people to use these toilets and evolve a culture of self restriction in terms of not littering the road – not dirtying their surroundings – keeping in mind that by doing so they are saving themselves from violating the rights of others to live in clean and hygienic environment.

Don't Compare !

Don't compare!

But we have all reasons to compare and it is not like we are comparing apples with oranges - here the comparison is between two similar situations - the only difference is how they are handled by two different governments.

Here the two governments in question are United Progressive Alliance (UPA) ruling the world's biggest democracy - India and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a political party, which is ruling the most populous state of India - Uttar Pradesh.

Both the parties are led by women, incidentally. UPA is chaired by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and BSP is led by its head Mayawati.

The latter (Mayawati) is getting a pat on her back for making the India's first Formula 1 Grand Prix a reality, that too, in a state, which is more popular for its illiteracy, poverty and backwardness. Today, authorities concerned are not getting tired of praising the F1 track, which passes all the international standards and which is getting accolades from every quarter.

If the F1 drivers are referring the track as "fast, flowing, beautiful and one of the best", the Federation Internationale de Automobile Jean Todt finds the construction "impressive and majestic".

What made the F1 track an international success, is a clever decision by the State Government led by its woman Chief Minister Mayawati. She handed over the responsibility to private player along with a clear deadline. The result is in front of the world!

The private company JayPee Sports International - a subsidiary of JayPee Group of Companies - a leading Indian company into infrastructures - which is also constructing major highways in the state - did the job in the given time. More importantly, the job was not only done, it was well done with no compromise on quality.

Now the comparison - most people have forgotten about the Common Wealth Games, which India organised recently. Just a mention of the word CWG brings back all black memories. India was ridiculed for not being able to complete the preparation in time. At the last moment, the Prime Minister had to intervene to save the face of the nation. For some time the situation had gone so grave that everyone thought of CWG slipping out of India's hands.

The games somehow happened and then followed the shameful dissection, which unearthed bad quality of work, fake payments and many other such grave anomalies. The ghost of CWG continues to haunt the nation and continues to stare squarely into the face of the ruling party of India.

On the other hand, no one even realised when the F1 track was ready for its maiden races in India!

So, the moral of the story is - the government cannot do everything alone but it has to depend on others for certain things. But the mantra is : when you depend on others - trust them fully and give them independence and time to deliver. In CWG the private players were involved by through the government and therefore the corruption. In Formula 1 it was the private player with no interference by the government.

The results of both the experiments are in front of the world.

The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati might be facing criticism for erecting monuments and her statues. But in this case she has proved her mettle and she has surpassed all leaders of the country.

It was said in joke that if the responsibility of organising CWG was given to Mayawati, th situation of CWG would have been completely different. She would have ensured quality and punctuality and the world would have gaped at India in awe.

Lastly and most importantly, the governments, which are supposed to spend money for the welfare of its people, especially for the poor and the needy, would not have spent huge sums of money on luxury sports. While the UPA government spent millions of rupees in organising CWG and drew flak from all quarters, Mayawati government had to spend nothing in putting up this grand show for which she is getting the accolades!