Change their Mindset – What Bullshit?

Few months back I had couple of my US trips and got a chance to see the culture, people, development and lots of good and bad things there. One of the things that really impressed me was the dedication these people have for observing rules. May it be a traffic rules, littering, no smoking in public places, etc.

For many days I was wondering why these people don’t have the general tendency of breaking laws? Why so many people prefer to keep their cars dirty than throwing the garbage on the roads?

When I came back to India, I discussed this with couple of my close friends and raised the point that why can’t similar things happen in India? Both of them were insisting on –
- It cannot happen in India,
- We can’t just enforce laws anywhere,
- We have to change people’s mindset,
- Blah, blah, blah.

Somehow I thought there is something missing in this. I didn’t really believe if this idea of changing mindset would really be effective. It’s just ridiculous to say that we can change the mindset of more than 1 billion population with so many of them illiterate. If at all it’s possible then it would take several decades before we see people taking active participation in this. Incidentally the basic problem that high population countries face is very few people have the ability to think. Majority of the population here today can’t think beyond their bread and butter activities. The idea of these people changing their mindset itself sounds sarcastic.

Few months back an incident occurred to me. I went to a public tea stall in Aundh and was sitting on a table when this guy comes and sits on the table next to mine and starts smoking. As I am allergic to smoke I requested him not to smoke but the poor guy fails to understand that he’s causing trouble to others said – “I am sitting on a different table, why you should have any problem? If you don’t like it then go and sit somewhere else”. Neither I understood how to react nor I had enough patience to argue. I was thinking of calling my dearest friends to change his mindset but frankly I didn’t believe if anyone could have changed his mindset. Probably his wife, but question arises who would change her mindset?

We see these two states one what’s happening in the developed countries and one in the developing countries. One might argue that by the time we change from developing country to developed country things would change. But my dear friend don’t you think this is not an atomic and automatic change. It has some transition period involved in it and there are some responsibilities and actionable for few of us to make this change happen. Aren’t we going through this transition period and isn’t this time to think about how to change the situation?

A key point that should not go unnoticed is all these countries have very heavy fines for breaking laws/rules. Some approximate numbers to give an idea of fines charged in California– $250-$350 for not obeying traffic signals, $1000 for littering, etc.

There is no reason why can’t we apply the same logic here. Charge fines in the range of say Rs10000 for not following traffic signals, Rs15000 for smoking in the public places. Somebody might question like we have so many poor percentage of population in India how the hell are we going to take out 10K-15K from them. The solution is simple ‘put them in jail’ for few months. If you are poor then you better not break the rules. Read between the lines and you would understand that no one would dare to break the laws if it’s so costly. No need to implement it at each and every place. Just some random checks and punish these random lawbreakers.

I am one of the best examples of people who afford to break laws just because it’s cheap. For several months I have been driving in Pune traffic without carrying my driving license and no PUC. Not that I don’t have license issued but just forget to take it with me. May be because I know my laziness won’t cost me more than few hundred bucks that too once in 2-3 months. This same lazy guy goes to US and every time before getting into car makes sure that he has his driving license with him.

Okay now let me change my angle of thinking here. Some people might say we have corruption spread at the ground levels. But if the actual fine amount is so high, bribe amount would also increase considerably making people think ten times before lawbreaking.

If, in case, laws are changed the way they are proposed here then there would be our dearest politicians to oppose this heavy punishment scheme and get some public sympathy for their bloody selfish voting business. Just in the similar way they came to help us at the time of helmet crisis in Pune.

Who cares? I am not here to change the mindset of these inhuman politicians; I am here to write my random thoughts.

Why Corruption?

It sometime becomes interesting to think why people in India are corrupted to such a great extend.

Some people say and believe that stopping bribing can stop corruption. Not bribing has been advised since a long time but still is an ineffective method and fails to produce results on large scale.

To stop bribing sounds like a good idea but if we think about the drawbacks of it - this method is a passive method and it makes the things difficult for people who observe it. And I guess that is the reason not many people stick to it. The prerequisite for succeeding this method is –it should be accepted on large scale at the same time. With the kind of busy life folks have, no one really wants to spend time and energy in unwanted activities. People prefer to spend few extra bucks and get their work done quickly. May it be a driving license, IDP, billing, some govt. work, etc.

Rule is if passive fails try using active methods. May be its time for us to take some active steps in order to stop the corruption. The reason why so many people are corrupted is they feel it quite safe when they accept the bribes. Make them feel insecure; make them feel guilty about what they are doing; make them think ten times before accepting bribes.

I am not sure if it’s the best way of doing this but something that might be adapted - we should gather the contact details of some of the anti-corruption organizations that are quick in taking actions and also genuinely interested in taking steps against corruption. Next step is just to spread these contact details and start using them whenever and wherever corruption takes place. More the number of complains less would be the number of demands for bribe.

shree