Indices of a decent society

Indices of a decent society

Context:

• The recent report that ranks India 177 out of 180 countries in the Environmental Performance Index is not just an indicator of pollution but is as much an indicator of our indifference.

How did we arrive here?

• It is not just about pollution of nature but also of our society.
• There has been far more resistance to the environmental effects of modern life, such as the attempts to ban plastic or conserve water, there has been very limited awareness of the impact of the pollution of the social sphere.

Pollution of our society

• The pollution of our society is much like that of the natural world: it happens silently and seemingly without our control.
• One could even perhaps say that it is the prior pollution of the social world that creates natural pollution.
• After all, some scholars have been claiming for quite some time that nature is already social.
• There is no pure nature that is available to us, and our ideas of nature are most often socially constructed.
•  Pollution of nature is as much the pollution of the social and vice versa.
• The breakdown of basic social decency or the incitement of hatred about others should not just be seen as social aberrations but as pollution of our society.
•  Like the air quality index or the water quality index, there should be indices of a decent society.
• Something like a ‘social indifference index’ can gauge social pollution and we shouldn’t be surprised if India ranks among the bottom in this category.

Social practices:

• An effective way to tackle the pollution of the natural world is to recognise that this pollution is symptomatic of social problems also.
• If garbage is a worry, it is as much our social practices that make it an environmental problem.
• If our air is so badly polluted, it is as much due to the indifference of governance as the exhaust caused by thousands of vehicles.

Unthinking development:

• One of the greatest drivers of natural pollution is unthinking development in our country.
• Unthinking development is also an important driver of social pollution.
• Silently accepting toxic behaviour in our society is very similar to accepting products and technologies without even thinking about what we do.
• It is the creation of an artificial chasm between the natural and the social that makes us forget that the pollution of nature is a reflection of the pollution of our society.

Way ahead:

•  Our air or water quality index will improve when we attack social pollution in conjunction with natural pollution.
• The cleanliness of a nation is really not very different from the cleanliness of the natural environment.
• Unless we deal with social pollution as stringent as environmental pollution, it will be a sorry world that we leave behind for our children.
• Swachh Bharat needs to be as much about cleaning socially polluted ideas and practices as it is about cleaning our streets and toilets.