" Life comes cheap in India"
" Life comes cheap in India" sums up the story of compensation and
rehabilitation for the dead and injured in the July 13, 2011 blast
victims of Mumbai ( India Abroad,July 20,2012). It is painful to read
the heart-rending stories of these innocent people who feel that they
were at a wrong place at a wrong time.
The stories illustrate the shattered dreams and the shattered families
: "The world has forgotten us" ( Namdev Narayan Dhulup), " I wish I
was dead"( (Aspi Motilal Khetu), " I desperately need a job, Can you
help me please?" ( Sarika Jain), " The unbearable loneliness of life
in the big city" ( Rinku Vishwkarma), " No one cares" (parents of
Chandrakant Wanker), " The compensation money was not enough" ( Varsh
Karia), " If I spend so much money on medicines, how will I provide
for my family" (Vinod Shukla)," He is here with me" ( Kanna Shah) and
" The bomb was in a tall lunch box" ( Ramlal Musai Yadav), " The
family that won't talk about its dead" ( Bhupatbhai) .
No city or country can provide hundred percent security to all its
citizens even if it has large police force with all arms and
equipment. Presidents and the prime ministers have been killed with
all the security in the world. The least that the country has to do is
to provide proper and timely compensation and help in the
rehabilitation.
Your reporter, Vaihayasi Pande Daniel, says that there are 730 blast
victims in Mumbai, and tells us how New York honors and compensates
fully the 9/11 victims. As one of the affected family member says a
job or an alternative means of livelihood to the next of kin would
help them rebuild their lives. This is the most glaring fault of the
Indian government. Most of them have received compensation but
according to them it would not last for a long time. Among the
corporates, only the Tatas seem to have provided immediate relief with
monthly cash payment to help them cope up with life.
Some of the victims have revealed how some politicians promised help
which never materialised. These politicians spend crore of rupees on
election but could not help them at the hour of their need.
Indian government has been negligent of the victims of natural
calamities, irrigation dams, railway and bus accidents, industrial
disaster ( Bhopal) and terrorist attack. It is time that the
government set-up a department, if not a ministry, which takes up the
issue of compensation and rehabilitation of the victims on a
systematic way without bureaucratic delay. Tata's had set up such a
cell to help those affected by the blast in Taj Mahal and other
places in 2008 in Mumbai to trace the victims and their families to
help them stand on their legs.
As far as the terrorists are concerned, less said the better. They are
fanatics who do not know religion as no religion sanctions killing
innocent people. If it sanctions, it is no religion at all, it is pure
and simple imperialism.
July 19,2012.
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