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Our Attitude Regarding Civic Responsibilities

Civic Responsibilities... why are we Indians - I include Myself in this - so casual towards this? Why are we so careless towards the basic behaviour that defines a normal functional society? On any given day, we can see innumerable examples of Indians putting their country to shame - spitting on the road, breaking red light, parking in no parking zone, not helping people in need in accidents, peeing in public, ignoring corruption incidents, ignoring broken public water taps since "it is not my problem", throwing their trash on the road, dirtying parks, giving bribes... I could go on and on. I cannot even say the people are the same everywhere - I have been abroad, and have seen the people there. What hurts is that the same Indians behave in a completely different fashion outside India! Why this casual attitude?

It is a matter of national shame if we are having to see an Aamir Khan advertise "Incredible India" and "Atithi Devo Bhava" to remind us of the simplest of things. Do we spit on our carpet at home? On our cars? Then why spit on the road, and even paan spits that discolour and spoil the environ? I have seen trash being thrown on the road, even when there is a trash-can available 10 feet away! This is a classic case of double standards. Our behaviour at our own homes and abroad demonstrates that we are capable of being clean, responsible. yet, when it comes to our own country, we couldn't care less. Would you dare to pee in your drawing room or bedroom? No. Then why outside - when there is a urinal available at hand? This just leads me to question - are we taking things for granted? I re-iterate: It is matter of national shame that we are actually having to run advertisement campaigns targeted at educating Indians!

While the Incredible India Campaign was actually intended at increasing tourism, (as the enclosed links will elucidate) they also serve an important secondary purpose - social awareness. They are successfully making people question themselves and the world around them.  It needs to be noted that Aamir Khan is not taking any remuneration for this- which is indeed praiseworthy







Perhaps the way out would be to catch them young - take this up in schools, perhaps even colleges initially. In schools, it would be better if this is taken up from the 1st or second standard itself.. I say this because far too obviously we are not teaching this to our children at home. Had that been the case, we would not be having to run a social awareness campaign at all! Our country is as good as our home - and it is up to us to keep it nice and clean... something that I think most of us do not accept.
  
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Comments

  1. Anonymous3 January 2014 at 09:51

    There is a new advertisement, showing the experience of foreign tourists with the widespread spitting and garbage throwing. Any idea if it is available on youtube?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Reflections Of Vishal V Kale6 January 2014 at 17:10

      No idea... havent seen the ad... can you tell me more?

      Delete

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