On a flight from Mumbai to
Bangalore last evening, I was flipping through a local newspaper that covered
the various happy and sad moments of the year just gone by. My eyes were stuck at the horrific pictures
of two of the most bizarre accidents of the recent months that were caused due
to sheer apathy on part of the authorities. One was the Elphinstone railway bridge
stampede that took away 23 innocent lives and the other one was the very recent
1Above pub fire that killed 14 innocent merry makers.
And these are not the only isolated
incidents where we came across complete apathy on part of the authorities. Year
after year, we have seen similar accidents involving hospitals, places of
worship, festival gatherings etc. Governments will come and go; Ministers will
inspect the sites only after an accident; a few upright bureaucrats might bring
in cheer here and there but the situation will not improve drastically. It
needs mobilization of public opinion and public consciousness. It is like the ‘Swachchha
Bharat’ campaign which banks upon the common man to participate and make it a
success.
Life is precious and a negligence
of even a fraction of a second can take away a kicking and bubbling life as we
saw in the case of that birthday girl in the 1Above fire accident. She just
blew her birthday candles to the cheer of her friends and just a few moments
later death blew her away – for none of her fault.
While places of public utility
and services will still need the authorities to wake up from their slumber,
with the high reach and impact of the social media, we can influence the
opinion makers and the lawmakers to get into action. However, on the other commercial
establishments like Restaurants, Malls, theatres etc. who depend heavily on our
patronage, we have the collective ability to twist their arms and make them
follow best practices in order to provide safe and secure spaces.
And that is where crowd-sourcing
will help us. Since most of these establishments are either owned by
politicians or people with political patronage, it is not easy for a common man
to take them head-on. The backlash would be too deadly for an individual to withstand.
However, we can collectively air our negative opinions on these matters and
avoid patronizing such places. The best way to counter these unscrupulous
elements would be to hit them where it hurts most – their business investments.
Can the popular portals like
Zomato and others introduce a Safety Rating other than the usual quality
related rating that gives a collective opinion to a prospect. And the 5-Star Safety
Rating would depend on whether the place has firefighting equipments? Whether
the Fire exits are marked clearly? Whether they have multiple exit points?
Whether the entry /exit staircase /gallery has enough space to provide safe
passage to the entire capacity?
Someday, people will realize that
it is safer to go to an eatery with 5-star rating on Safety-meter and 4-star on
taste of the food than the other way round. Someday, the greedy, callous owners
of such joints will start focussing on these important aspects as well.
Someday, they will value our lives more than their profit margins. And someday,
we will realize our own worth and will learn to place our safety and security
above all other considerations. Let us start the New Year with that resolve.
