THE ENEMY IS ALREADY INSIDE.....

By Ruma Dubey

Vineet is a fresh engineering graduate and he was pretty kicked up about his employment with TCS. For his training, he was placed in Chennai and got into it with full gusto. Within a fortnight of his arrival, his room-mate fell ill and he was diagnosed with Dengue. Vineet was the one who got him admitted to the hospital not knowing that the same fate awaited him with a few days. Having completed his first month, with one more to go, he was suddenly down with fever only to be diagnosed with Dengue. He had to stay in the hospital for a week and is now back in Mumbai, recuperating. While he was leaving, he got to know that another new recruit was struck down with the same dengue.

Delhi, as such we know has become a hot bed, literally for these deadly mosquitoes with dengue and chikunguniya becoming common. Though the official numbers of those afflicted are very low, the reality is that this could soon become an epidemic if swift and serious action is not taken.

The case is no different in Mumbai; maybe not enough cases are being notified but even here, the city seems to be inundated with dengue and chikunguniya. It has become very common to hear one friend or the other or a close relative to get afflicted; what we are trying to say that we all now know someone who is/was down with either of the two ailments.

This is the state of affairs in these three metros; surely it could be worse in the 2 and 3 tier cities where there has been rampant growth with little attention being paid to sanitation or health. And really, that is at the root of this seemingly epidemic situation which we are currently facing. But do we ever hear about this on TV? Or can it be considered to be a subject of debate? Of course not! Unfortunately, till some VVIP does not get afflicted or succumbs to it, this apathy in the health sector and compete break down of civic care will never come to the fore. We are currently caught in Pakistan not knowing that the enemy is already within us, slowly but surely killing us.

There is news that India has jumped 16 places to the 39th position in the last year in the WEF’s Global Competitiveness Index. But really, if we look at things around us, are we really anywhere there? Our quality of life has consistently deteriorated and infrastructure remains a challenge; so how are we climbing up? Purely based on data?

In a TV interview today Kiran Muzumdar Shaw rightly said, “We have done a shoddy job in primary healthcare. Some states are doing better than others. Basically, this is a sector that needs focus and there has to be a policy for basic healthcare.”

Our question is – why can’t the private sector step into this?  If some many employees are falling sick with Dengue, maybe TCS needs to look how it can help? This is true for all companies. The civic bodies simply do not work; it is frustrating that they make money and are not doing their job well. But in the battle of you or me, we are the losers.

The Indian companies as such are a part of the mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) plan and the Govt has chalked out 10 areas of spending for promoting - education, gender equity, environmental sustainability, sanitation, availability of safe drinking water, eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, preventive healthcare, protecting national heritage, spending for the benefit of armed forces veterans, war widows and their dependents, and contributing to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.

So this CSR as stipulated by the Govt does expect the companies to spend on improving sanitation and also for preventive healthcare. How come no one is spending a penny on eradicating this menace of the mosquitoes which is crippling our work force, our women and children?

But India Inc is miserly when it comes to CSR itself. As per a report put out by Praxis India and Corporate Responsibility Watch - CSR in India, 2016, 60% of companies have failed to comply with the mandatory 2% expenditure on CSR and this includes 32 of 50 NIFTY companies. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has sent show cause notices to more than 100 companies for not meeting expenditure standards. Well, then how can we expect India Inc to shoulder this responsibility?

This situation in our cities is alarming and we need to get up and act if the others wont because it is we who could lose not the companies, not the Govt and most certainly not the civic authorities.