Change.org doesn't Change Anything

- Pratik Badgujar

We all have become familiar with the pain that the poor elephant has to go through in Kerala. Very strong reactions have rightly emerged from all factions of society. Among such voices, my friend sent me a link to website which had an online petition for demanding formation of strict laws against such incidents. Here is a chat that followed:

I: Are such petitions useful?

He: May be but, doing it doesn't harm anyone, and if effective then it will be helpful in some sense at least.

I: I believe that such petitions are not very useful as they give a false sense to the signee that "i have done my part". After signing, one doesn't even think about what he/she personally should do about such issues. So, in effect, signing such non-legal petitions is a bad idea.

He: It depends on person to person, I am doing because I consider this brutality inhuman and want it to stop, why are you thinking so much? if you sign, it may lead to change, but if you don't you will forget it and after some time start living with this brutality. Like Nirbhaya or other cases..

I: Won't it give a false contentment?

He: I don't think so. Any kind of positive vibes, generate positive impact on society and if it leads to certain law formation to stop all this, then it will inspire people to raise their voice in multiple ways against such inhuman practice.

I: People are just online warriors these days. They see something, post some tweets, posts, videos and feel that they have done their part...It’s true that sometimes this has resulted in some desired outcomes, but that happens rarely.

He: See, that's why its important to at least participate in such petitions.

I: But the best possible outcome of such petition is just creation of a law. Isn’t it?

He: Yes.

I: Do you know what is the difference between governance structure of Japan and India? In India, it’s easy to frame laws but difficult to make people follow it. While in Japan making a law is very difficult but once made, people willingly follow it.

We, the people of India, and our government has the mentality that framing a law is the best solution for any issue arisen and then we are done.

Same thing happened in Nirbhaya case and many others...

Nobody talks about changing the ecosystem of laws and behaviors we live with. Nobody wants to change his/her own actions and belief system. And as a result, incidents keep repeating again and again.

He: Agreed. I agree we have a lot chaos within our country still we are at 4th position in the world in military, economic and commercial sense. And the most of people of Japan are living very stressful life. I am not saying they are wrong. Indians are curious but stubborn people they don't follow anything unless it is forced or it is convenient to their beliefs.

So, what is the question here, what something impacts on society it can be obtained only by implying it.

How can someone know about the consequences without implementation? Japan has very harsh natural environment that’s why they are compelled to live a disciplined life. While India, is blessed with relatively comfortable environment and hence we don’t like to follow rules verbatim!

I : But, we are at bottom or near bottom in healthcare, in human development index, in hunger index, in economic parity, in quality of education. What’s the use of an economy in which the top 1% is controlling most of wealth? Our administration has become money oriented. Power comes from politics and our politicians respect only money as it is required to win elections. So, at the end, it is the money which is ruling and getting things done for a common man.

The only goal of governance should be to provide an environment of equal opportunity to its citizens. But at present it is seriously skewed in favour of those having monetary resources.

He: See Pratik, these are very big issues in which we might not do anything but at least what we should do what we can do up to our limit.

I: True. We should do something about them; and that something is changing our behaviour or at least world view; otherwise it’s very easy to get carried away by so many agendas going around. If doing a few clicks can change your behaviour or world view, then there is no reason to object it. But that is not the case with most of the signees, I believe.

How many of signees actually change their behaviour or belief, just because they have signed somewhere? In this case the signee should become more compassionate towards animals and environment.

He: But isn’t it that by signing the petition, at least one is participating in change, in some way at least? Isn’t it better than just sitting idle and becoming a spectator?

I: It’s not even participating actually. Signing such petitions is meaningless and gives signee a (false) sense of participating- if it doesn't trigger a behavioural change.

We already have so many laws. India need a better implementation of laws and not just new laws themselves. A similar uproar happened after Nirbhaya incident too. And then also existing laws were strengthened. But have rapes stopped after that? No, not at all. In fact, very few are reported in media.

Just creation of law is not the solution of any problem; their effective implementation is. And implementation is not just the responsibility of the government but it is the duty of every one of us.