Air Water and Food
Right from the human inception and its million
of years of progression, it has survived on its brain but mostly on clean air,
clean water and food, good enough to support the nutrient demands of the body.
Even after million years of journey, these are still the primary yardsticks of
any developed country and overall human development index. Suddenly why I have
thought of these basic ingredients of human life, has got a background.
Over the past few weeks, news which compromise on these basic ‘tatav’ of our life are scary and more concerning as they are coming from the most affluent cities of India. The air of national capital has drawn global attention since the last decade. Kids have reluctantly relinquished firecrackers during Diwali, a festival of light and hope which comes once in a year. Instead they are using battery operated bat to kill mosquitoes and the sparkling light and ‘put pop’ sound gives them a new pleasure of fire crackers. Their joy has not just narrowed by ban on fire crackers but also the untimely closure of schools due to the bad air in the city. Hospitals get overcrowded and olds and weak people find it difficult to survive. Now the rich and affluent old leaves the city for a quarter to go to their kid’s homes in other cities or sometimes out of the country also. But not many have that luxury. They remain enclosed within their houses or gated societies. Even going to lush green Delhi parks is a risk to their lungs during the peak of pollution mainly the months of November, December and January. Contrary to the common belief, Delhi has highest number of green zones and trees. I believe it’s more green zones than that of any big metros of the country. But a decade of inept policing and lack of political will and coordination among states has failed millions of Delhiites, young and old alike.
So Delhi was for air, if we move to another big and bubbling metro, Bangalore, it has got water crisis. Post covid and the rise of IT companies by leap and bounds have pushed Bangalore to new heights of growth, inflation and urbanisation. The sizeable increase in number of IT companies and Bangalore’s pied piper charm has drawn millions of youths not only across the country but outside the country too. The magnanimous growth has put heavy load on its natural resources, water being the prime one. The heat wave and temperature in the month of April has beaten records of May and all the previous years. I remember the month of May in Bangalore more than couple of decades ago, there was no fan in the school classes. I was so surprised to see that. It was not because they had no funds but they didn’t need fans. Bangalore was cool, moderate and congestion free. But now a day’s even the ministers of the state are struggling to get proper supply of water in Bangalore. This is indeed a pathetic situation and put a huge question mark on our development trajectory. I am not even asking about the pure drinking water supply to our water taps, it’s just the water supply which is in shambles in Bangalore. The supply of pure drinking water without the need of RO and filters is another big issue which needs another big article. I can’t accommodate it here.
So we have seen air and water. Air and water alone can’t feed us. We need food too. The adulteration of food, fruits, spices and vegetables in India is a huge and old problem. The desire to earn quick money by greedy business people and ghastly corrupt and inept government agencies has hugely disappointed us. They have no concerns for human general wellbeing and health. They don’t bother whether the adulterating agents can cause cancer or compromise immunity of our kids. The recent news of top spice brands of the country has got cancer causing agents and that too investigated by agencies of Singapore and Hongkong is a matter of national concern. We are known for spices for ages. It’s one of our biggest PR brand. If we are faltering it, it will dent our country’s image globally. Why our govt agencies never bothered to check or investigate these samples before?? Recently we heard of raids on spurious drug companies selling medicines critical for life. Even foreign brands, like Nestle take us granted. They get a free hand in adding extra sugar in baby products which makes immune system of our babies weaker. This has also been revealed by a foreign agency not our lazy and corrupt government agencies which find everything is in rosy condition. The role of media is also questionable. Is the media doing enough to expose the nexus between these corrupt ‘babus’ and greedy business people??
In the blind push for development, which is undoubtedly the need of the hour, are we doing enough to sustain the basic ingredients of life? Sorry if I sound like a crying baby but I wrote it because not much noise is heard on these basic amenities in public discourse. The talks are more on reels, IPL and elections. I don’t think only roads and bridges make us stronger. We as a human and citizen of the country have basic rights on the core ingredients of life: air, water and food. Isn’t it?
