Society’s declining capacity to heal itself underlies tragedies

The legal and policy regime finds itself overwhelmed by an increasingly corrupt system and decrepit society, writes Prof. Arun Kumar.

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STUDENTS shouted, "We want justice." This is for the three students who drowned in the basement of a famous coaching institute in the heart of Delhi when it got flooded due to rain.

The young doctors in Kolkata are also raising the same slogan. The protesters themselves also need justice because they are in the same boat. Citizens are crying for justice as such tragedies have become a frequent occurrence.

Who is listening? The corrupt system which is at the root of such tragedies? The cynical and demoralised public that soon forgets because another avoidable tragedy occurs. The courts that have a backlog of five crore cases.

Most citizens seem resigned to accept that the nation cannot do better.

The coaching hub of Mukherjee Nagar in New Delhi saw big blazes in June 2023 and in September 2023. Often, these coaching institutes are in cramped places with narrow staircases and cupboards cluttering the corridors.

The hostels the students stay in are also cramped and act as traps in case of an accident. These are a result of maximisation of use of available space with complete disregard to safety norms. A similar situation prevails in other coaching hubs such as in Kota in Rajasthan or Katwaria Sarai in New Delhi. Why this callousness?

Illegality all the way

The drowning in the basement is no simple matter. A chain of things has to go wrong for it to happen. A basement was illegally used as a library. Its doors could only be operated biometrically so if the electricity failed, they could not be opened and people inside were trapped. The basement design was such that water from the road could directly enter it. Given frequent water logging during intense rains, this should have been anticipated by the architect.

Also read: Why is the Rajasthan government using internet shutdowns to curb malpractices in public examinations?

So, why are buildings designed poorly and why do roads get waterlogged every year? There is massive illegality in the way our cities function. Underlying that is the growing greed that fuels all-round corruption. Owners of buildings want to use every inch of space for residential and commercial purposes. Zoning and building bye-laws are systematically violated and for that bribes are paid to regulatory authorities.

So, every plot of land is overbuilt without consideration for structural or safety features. Drains are covered, pavements used for parking and occupied commercially. The little bit of open space that buildings are required to leave is also occupied or paved with stone leaving no space for the water to go away or into the soil.

Citizens add to the drainage woes. Plastic bags, potato chip wrappers, paper, etc. are discarded indiscriminately. This trash ends up in the drains which get clogged. The municipality knows this and is supposed to get the drains cleared before the monsoons but this is done half-heartedly. Also, this is a losing battle given the constant generation of trash which again chokes the drains.

A safai karamchari told me some years back that only 50 percent of the staff shown on the rolls come to work. The salary of the fictitious employees is siphoned out and shared. So, those working also shirk work.

If a contractor is employed for the purpose, he also skims money off by doing a shoddy job and paying the workers a fraction of what they are supposed to get. He has to share the money with those awarding the contract.

A head of police mentioned that not an inch of space on the pavements can be occupied without paying hafta to the police and municipal authorities. Businesses pay and flout laws with impunity.

Also read: Rajinder Nagar tragedy is symptomatic of a drowning system

They cut corners with electricity connections and installation of equipment. So, short circuits happen, resulting in fires. Gas cylinders are improperly stored so that they burst and the fire spreads quickly, trapping people indoors.

But the issue is not only about the buildings, drainage and bureaucratic and police corruption. It also relates to the education system which forces children into coaching.

Since jobs are few and unemployment is high, there is intense competition for the few good jobs. Lakhs appear for a thousand Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) jobs. About 1.25 crore applied in 2019 for 35,000 railway non-technical jobs. Millions apply for exams for entrance into colleges and universities. So, students need every aid they can get. Parents finance it for their children's careers.

Why coaching?

Coaching is an aid to exam preparation. Children are taught exam techniques to enable them to score high in standardised exams. Exams for various jobs have to be standardised given the large numbers taking them. They require technique and mugging up rather than absorption of knowledge.

Coaching institutions are money spinners for their owners. Income is maximised by cutting corners whether in the case of the buildings hired, instructors employed, facilities provided, etc.

Students have to pay high tuition fees and high rent for a room close by. There are other expenses such as food and study material. A whole ecosystem develops, as in Mukherjee Nagar or Rajinder Nagar in New Delhi.

Students' expenses are limited by their family's capacity to pay. About 97 percent of Indian families are middle class or poor and cannot afford much. So, the students look for the cheapest possible places and these are precisely the ones that cut all corners and give a go-bye to safety.

Also read: Kota story redux: UMMEED will be hopeless without wider social changes

Earning of coaching institutes depends on their ability to attract students. For this, they need to show good results and advertise them. This leads some of them to indulge in malpractices, thereby fouling up the entire system. Since the owners are either themselves powerful or have links to the powerful, they escape scrutiny and manage the regulators.

Failure of the education system

The proliferation of coaching represents a failure of the education system to prepare children for the standardised examinations which are a gateway to good jobs.

Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) reports since 2005 point to abysmal teaching in most schools. Most students drop out and only a few enter higher education and many of them are barely able to cope. Indifferent teaching based on rote learning that kills the interest of students makes matters worse. Examinations that hardly test knowledge are mechanically passed and become the passport to a career.

Students appear year after year for competitive examinations. The marginalised sections and their families are the losers since they are forced to alienate the few assets they possess. The frustrated youth get into substance abuse and violence in the family.

One step further back, why cannot children get a good education? The issue is societal, how much priority education gets? The percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) spent on public education indicates that.

The global standard is 6 percent— a goal accepted by the Kothari Commission in 1968. India has never exceeded 4 percent. Given the low base India started with, the percentage needed to be higher, as was the case with some Southeast Asian countries that went up to 10 percent in terms of their spending on education.

The low priority given to education is the result of the leadership's largely feudal attitude and its desire for cheap labour. This author has heard landlords say, "If the children of the poor get educated, who will take my goat to graze."

Also read: Glass ceiling, not ceiling fans, is responsible for student suicides

Businesses and the well-off also want cheap labour. Unemployment helps keep wages low.

Summing up

The coaching phenomenon and the exploitation of students who suffer sub-standard facilities are a product of a weak public education system, paucity of good jobs, poverty, corruption in civic services and growing commercialisation of education.

This system based on mugging up neither produces good workers nor new knowledge. Corruption also seeps into other aspects of life and corrodes all systems, thereby leading to sub-optimality.

So, the death by drowning of the three youngsters is a result of decrepit systems. Problems are superficially analysed and solutions proposed which do not address the underlying causes. Often, the problem is forgotten as fresh crises overwhelm us.

The drowning tragedy has been overtaken by the Wayanad tragedy, cloud bursts in Uttarakhand and Himachal, the doctor's case in Kolkata and the Hindenburg Report. The Manipur tragedy is going on. There are the deaths in Asha Kiran in Delhi, rapes of little children, train and road accidents and what not.

Administrative transfers, bulldozer justice, fabricated encounter killings, etc., turn out to be non-solutions. Corruption undermines professionalism of the administration and leads to a 'sab chalta hai' attitude.

Not only do the tragedies recur but overwhelm citizens and make the situation seem irresolvable. Citizens become cynical and alienated and seek individual solutions. The collective weakens, conflict grows and society loses its capacity to heal itself.