Six pavement dwellers in Mumbai run over by a car driven by drunken youth. It’s not the first time this has happened and it certainly won’t be the last - not just in Mumbai but in any city across this country. It is perhaps the ugly face of India’s metropolitan youth.
Do today’s urban youth have contempt for the law? Are parenting and education systems largely to blame? And has the law constantly failed to check this? These were the issues that came up for much debate and discussion on CNN-IBN’s show, The Verdict.
A thumping 62 per cent of the studio audience said that today’s youth have contempt for the law though the remaining 38 per cent disagreed.
It’s been week since the incident and one has not heard of single expression of remorse from the drunk 21-year-old who was at the wheel that fateful night - is that the nature of the generation next?
Answering the question, actor and musci video artist, Deepal Shaw said, “I don’t agree with this because I am a youngster myself and before committing a crime such as running over pavement dwellers - I would think ten times. It’s only because of the parenting and the kind of culture I have been living in that I would never get into situation like this. And there are so many like me who think in the same manner."
"The boy who ran over the people is just one person. He is not the whole generation. However, I do agree with the fact that today's youth are far more complacent, confused as well as hyper. “
The day after the incident took place ad-maker Prahalad Kakkar made - what some believe is a shocking - statement, wherein he suggested that the pavement dwellers in Bandra must take some of the responsibility for the accident.
Reacting to the statement he said, “I am saying it's not just Bandra. This is a problem everywhere in Mumbai. If you look at the roads today, they are getting narrower and narrower because there is huge amount of encroachment on the road. I am not condoling drinking and driving. Supposing you are not drunk and driving normally, supposing you had a flat tyre and you went out of control and ran over the pavement - what then? Do you expect people to be sleeping in a line and run over them? If it was flat tyre, it would have been an accident. The bottom line is everybody’s life in this city is expendable because it has the least value of all. Whether it’s a driver, whether it’s a pavement dweller or whether it’s a pedestrian, because there is no law and discipline.”
Do people really care what happens to pavement dweller?
Is there a sense that the people of Mumbai really don’t care what happens to the pavement dwellers. Today there is a reckless attitude among the youth.
Editor Time Out Magazine, Naresh Fernandes said, “On the one hand we have youth affirming that they have faith in the legal system and campaign for justice for Jessica Lall and Priyadarshini Mattoo. On the other hand, there is increasing cynicism in the legal system, which is encouraged by elders."
“We live in a society that has invented the term 'to regularise', which means that you can commit a crime, you can commit any illegality and depending on who you are, a magic wand will be waved and somehow, everything will become alright. You can’t blame youth for being cynical.”
Indian Express assistant editor, Farab Arya said, “The contempt is not for the law but for its implementation and for the law enforcement agencies because there is a sense that you can buy your way out of any crime.”
While talking about the law and order situation in the city, Joint Commissioner of Police, Mumabi, Arup Patnaik said, ”The law in this particular kind of accident is not very strict. The maximum section that we use is 304 of the IPC. It gives one barely two years in jail - that's the upper limit whether you kill six people or one person. People in India know that they can get away today.”
Does lifestyle encourage a reckless hedonism?
Prahalad Kakkar said, ”This is not really true because I don’t think youth today are any different from the youth of our times - when we were younger. We were on motorcycles instead of cars. The lifestyle has just become rich, but the attitude of the youth is very similar.”
“Today’s generation is more enthusiastic and they are more energetic, but their energy has to be channelled. I can say this because as a Vice Chancellor, I have been in close contact with youngsters for five years and if their energy is directed towards positive things, they behave very well," said former vice chancellor of Mumbai University Snehalata Deshmukh.
But what is it that leads the youth to drink so much?
According to Deepal Shaw said, people are being very unfair by blaming the entire youth just because of the reckless behaviour of this one person.
"There are many elderly people who are reckless. Today we know that all parents are sentimentalist - they have always been - they see only virtues and ideals in the eyes of their children. On the other hand, youngsters are confronted with this big bad world of globalisation, of westernisation, of the Internet and of peer pressure. They are fighting for their own identities more than their bread and butter. Before independence, there was Gandhiji who was leading us towards the path of truth and justice. Tell me one person whom the youth today can look upon and say 'yes I want to be like that person'," she questioned.
Has the urban Indian youth become contemptuous of the law?
What is the law across the world when it comes to alcohol and drinking? India is not very different from Britain, USA, Russia - most countries have zero tolerance towards drunken driving. Perhaps in our country we don’t have zero tolerance. If the laws were toughened, would that change anything?
“I don’t thing making newer laws will make any difference. The laws that we already have are enough to deal with the situation. We only need to implement what we already have,” said Prahlad Kakkar.
Drunken Driving Laws:
India
*30 mg alcohol is allowed in 100 ml of blood. That is 0.03 percent blood-alcohol content (BAC).
*On first offence the punishment is imprisonment of six months and/or a fine of Rs 2,000.
*If a second offence is committed within three years, the punishment is two years and/or a fine of Rs 3,000.
(Source: Section 185 of Motor Vehicles Act 1988)
Britain
*Permissible level of alcohol in the bloodstream is 0.08 percent BAC.
*Heavy penalty even for the first offence, fine up to £ 5,000 and six months imprisonment.
USA
*Permissible blood-alcohol level for under 21 years of age is usually zero.
*Punishment not just for drunk driving but even for having intention to do so.
Russia
*Zero tolerance for drivers found with even a trace of alcohol on their breath.
*License can be confiscated for lifetime.
“A person can have contempt for the law because he knows that the laws are not being implemented. If a law is implemented in its totality, nobody will have contempt for it,” added Kakkar.
However, the ground reality with implementation of laws reveals a different story. A person tested positive on an alcohol test in a city like Delhi or Bangalore, can easily get away by paying a mere Rs 100 bribe. Isn’t that what the ground reality is?
“I don’t think so,” said Naresh Fernandes. “Its not possible for anybody to bribe a public official and get away with it.”
Deepal Shaw said she believes otherwise. “I think one can get away. It’s easy for people to get away most of the times even when they have been proven drunk by a breath analyser test. Paying a mere Rs 100 is enough,” she said.
Denying the allegation of people getting caught drunk on a breath analyser test and then getting away, Joint Commissioner Arup Patnaik said the police does not have enough breath analyser devices to conduct such tests. He said that people couldn’t get away with such charges at all if they had the necessary equipment.
“We have very limited number of breath analysers. Only the traffic police in certain areas were provided with breath analysers. Though we are trying to introduce these devices into our system. We would also like to ensure that once a person is proved to have consumed alcohol, he may face the legal procedure that goes with the crime,” said Patnaik.
It is of course unfair to blame the police for everything, but on one hand we compare Mumbai to the high tech city of Shanghai, and on the other,we do not even have enough breath analyser devices to check rowdy drivers on roads. Also why is there little or no education about the laws that deal with drunken driving in our country?
Deepal Shaw suggested that a basic know-how of the law should be brought into the school and college curriculum to make the urban youth of our society more aware.
Responding to this Professor Snehlata Deshmukh said, “Of course knowledge of the law is important. The youth of our country have to be aware of the law and order system of our society. That is one thing. But I do not agree with the statement that there is unavailability of breath analysers with the police. The fact is that devices are available in the OPD of most government hospitals. I can quote about 10-15 examples where the drunk drivers were brought into the OPD of hospitals for tests. But what happens is that they get away by paying bribes.”
So Allister Pareira (the accused in the Carter Road incident) and his friends will be back on Mumbai’s streets in a couple of years. And what we will have is people like Prahlad Kakkar writing an article about how Pereira was not be blamed for the incident and that it was actually the pavement dwellers that were sleeping on the streets who are to be blamed.
“I am not blaming the pavement dwellers here. I am only blaming the contractors who put these people on streets,” Kakkar responded to this charge.
The focus is not on the issue of drunken driving. The focus is on what is happening in our cities past midnight? The fact is that Mumbai is a city of ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. The ‘have nots’ are out on the streets, and their life is expendable.
“It’s a human problem that we need to look into. Only when a situation like this arises, we all become suddenly concerned for the slum dwellers that have been mowed down,” said Farab Arya
But what if these youngsters had mowed down some rich high-class kids. How would we have reacted then?
“I don’t think that such a thing would have occurred, because it’s the pavement dwellers who sleep on roads, not the rich kids,” said Arya.
Easy, fast money and ‘I don’t give a damn’ attitude
Is it only the affluent class children who spend recklessly? Is it the parents who are to be blamed or is that a changing perception among today’s generation that’s responsible for such instances.
“Its not just the affluent people. The youngsters who work in call centers too get easy money. The entire mindset of today’s youth is changing with the easy cash flow that comes to them at an early age,” said a person who was a part of the audience.
“It is the easy fast money and the I don’t care attitude amongst the youngsters that attributes to such spending habits and the resultant incidents,” added Professor Snehlata Deshmukh.
The point that comes up is that there are two faces of the Indian youth today. It was the same youth that fought for Jessica Lall, raised a voice for Priyadarshini Mattoo and took up various causes. Then there is also the youth that flaunts a ‘devil may care’ attitude.
Which one does really represents the true face of the youth in today’s society?
“It is because of the huge disposable income that they have. On one hand you have Manu Sharma - a youngster who shot Jessica Lall. And then there were youngsters of the entire nation who fought against him. You cannot blame all youth for being reckless and irresponsible,” said Deepal Shaw.
“I think both faces represent today’s youth. We live in an age where we have subverted principles. We celebrate an atomised individual but forget our duties towards the collective. The law in the end is the representation of how we want to see our society,” said Fernandes.
Is this entire incident and the outcry over it, just about the contempt of the law among the youth or is it the callousness?
“I would say it is the hypocrisy that needs to be addressed first. When something like this happens, we are all get suddenly concerned, all show compassion for the pavement dwellers, but for the rest of the 365 days of the year, we sleep undisturbed. The truth is we don’t really care about them, or do we?” questioned Arya.
To sum it all, it becomes clear that our commitment to the law has suffered at some deep abiding level.
Professor Deshmukh said that it is the parents who are too be blamed for this carelessness the most. “They need to be more committed towards their children. They need to curb out the ‘devil may care’ attitude from their minds,” she said,
Deepal Shaw said that she had never driven a car after having had a drink or two. She said that youngsters today must not take their freedom for granted.
“Sometimes a youngster takes his freedom for granted which is not right. But I’m sure when you act sensibly, you set the right example for everyone else in the society,” said Deepal.
Do law enforcement agencies even look at drunken driving as serious problems?
Is the cynical view about the law and order system of our country going to change?
“The fact is that people have become cynical towards law. I would not blame the media for this but when you say kind of things like ‘people can get away by giving bribes’ you instigate more of such cynicism,” said Joint Commissioner Arup Patnaik. “I agree things are bad, but not so bad that they can’t be corrected. Things will change for sure,” he added.
Despite the cynical view of media, there are people who still have faith in the law and order system of our country and believe that things can change if you have the will. So does the society really has the will to change? It is easy to blame the law enforcement authorities but is the society willing to inculcate a change in its lifestyle pattern?
“I don’t think this boy will ever go back on the roads and will do what he did ever again in his life. He has learnt a lesson so lets not turn around and say that he is going to be out in two months and will do exactly what he did. That is a cynical view point because I believe that with the fear of the law, this boy will never repeat the same mistake again,” said Kakkar.
“All that the younger population of this world is looking for is direction. If somebody can give them direction, including media which did so in the Jessica Lall case, and films like Rang de Basanti, everybody will come out in support and we actually will change the system,” he added.
May be the ad-world can also put out a few more ads warning youth against implications of drinking and driving. So do we expect the ad-guru Parhlad Kakkar to do a little more than just Pepsi ads? May be a few more ads about drinking and driving.
“Absolutely. Why not?” said Kakkar with a smile.
There is a clear message in that nationwide verdict. There is much that the India’s youth has to feel proud of, but then there is also that little bit for it to feel ashamed of.
Source: CNN IBN