Value of Human Life

I never properly understood the valuation of human life in developing countries.

Human Life appeared to be cheap in the under-developed countries of the world in the past, and that included most countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Now, several such countries are in the process of attaining an “emerging” or “developing” status, which in my mind really means a GDP Growth Rate faster than 6% as a ballpark, and a per-capita income approaching USD1,000 or more atleast in the more populous countries. However, this does not, by any chance, mean that the “Human Development Index” in these “developing” countries is improving in tandem.

Apart from the well-documented economic disparity between the haves and have-nots which is worsening in a very skewed manner as the emerging economies develop faster, the resulting rush to Western Consumption patterns amongst the younger generation is leading to behavioural tendencies with utter disregard to human life. Youngsters in developing countries such as India today wish to emulate their American counterparts closely, right from dress sense to soap operas to food habits. This also includes a “holier-than-thou” attitude in the economically stronger sub-section of the society, which while numerically smaller, has a big concentration in small pockets across urban societies with influence disproportionately higher than it should be, even on the poorer sub-sections of the same societies.

Such concentration leads to a wealth “show-off” effect, with people able to afford fast bikes and cars. In a large metropolis like Mumbai, there are many affluent pockets of society, as there are slums. The complete nonchalance exhibited by the wealthier sections of youngsters towards the human habitation in public places by the very poor migrants is totally reprehensible. Many murders have happened in the streets over the past year and a half, due to the total negligence of young and fast drivers (who sometimes do not even have driving licences) who lost control due to their recklessness or drunkenness. While Mumbai Police Authorities have taken up a vigorous drive to control drunken driving, the issue in India is still the same - one of enforcement in a consistent and uniform manner. Lack of automated means to track reckless driving and a rapid response system to nab criminal drivers continue to inhibit effective enforcement.

In a nutshell, human life has not much meaning in developing countries like India - it can be dispensed with conveniently to satisfy the ravages of the economically advanced sections of the society many a time, or it can be “bought”. The lack of success of “socialism” is evident over four decades of lacklustre growth in India - it means “poverty distribution” rather than “poverty reduction”. The understanding of the importance of human life and human development is totally lacking at all planning levels of the government. This can be seen from the lack of serious investment in Education and Infrastructure. India probably needs atleast 5% of its annual budget to be spent on primary and secondary education, rather than constantly celebrating higher education successes and placement stories wherein management students walk away with US$ 100,000 salaries. How can 1,500 successfully placed management students impact a developing society like India’s ? How can probably 10,000 highly qualified engineers solve the problems of development in India - I am just counting the top institutes’ output here.

India (and China) continue to get poor scores in the U.N. Human Development Index as well as Corruption Index. There is very little investment in the human “software” aspect, as compared to the “hardware” infrastructure focus that governments currently are pursuing in the developing world. But the whole point will be missed if we ultimately reach an economic status, wherein there is : (a) wide disparity in the economic status across multiple strata of society - it now looks like 1% of the society is approaching a per capita income of USD 10,000 (my own estimate), while more than 80% of the society has a per capita income less than USD 500. Such skew is not helpful as the economy progresses at a rapid 9% clip over the next decade or so ; (b) there continues to be a lack of “connect” between the two extreme ends of the society, with many a youngster in the poorer sections of the society getting lost out for lack of equitable opportunities in education and jobs ; and, (c) there continues to be utter lack of focus on primary education and its infrastructure, especially in villages - there are many in the remote districts of Maharashtra wherein there are no teachers even, let alone a proper building.

We have to consciously attempt to enhance the valuation of human life on par with how a developed Western Society currently does - there is always a huge concern even at the loss of a single life in such developed societies. Why is there no such concern exhibited by the powers that be, which most of the times, tend to write off such losses easily - be that may be due to a railway accident, due to negligent and reckless driving over pavement dwellers, due to caste rivalries, etc., There are a million examples which can be gleaned from news stories around India every day. How come on one side there is a rash adoption of everything Western, while there is just no look at the best of the West - the human value being just one of the many good things in the Western Civilization ? Why should we just pick the bad things without more analysis ?

And China is no different from India - for folks who are overwhelmed by the China Story, here is an article from New York Times - over a quarter of the Chinese population is poor, despite the great strides made by China over the last three decades in uplifting its people. Please read “Lives of Grinding Poverty, Untouched by China’s Boom by Howard W. French”

Some food for thought, I guess.

Have a great, long weekend, folks.

Cheers

Vijay Srinivasan
12th Jan 2008
Mumbai