It appears that compassion fatigue has taken over the MDA Government as far as the rescue mission of the trapped miners is concerned. Murmurs are heard in the corridors of power that the rescue process is turning out to be an expensive affair; that the rescuers are tired and that the State can ill afford the heavy expenditure, especially since it is assumed by those in the district administration that the 15 miners (or more) are already dead. Those in Government cannot, of course, be expected to have empathy, especially with the poor. The bureaucracy in this country has always been stand-offish in its attitude towards the governed. They don’t know what it’s like to walk in the other man’s shoes. This Native American aphorism is a reminder to practice empathy. But empathy is precisely what is lacking in faceless government systems.
The decision to abandon a rescue mission is a moral and ethical one. For the family members it is heart-wrenching to be told that the bodies of their loved ones will lie in that watery hole forever because the state did not do enough, or did everything belatedly. It is also not as if the resources required for the rescue operations were not available; they all came in too late in the day. Even technicians were brought in two weeks after the disaster.
Article 21 of the Constitution says everyone has the right to life, liberty and security. This undoubtedly is the most fundamental of all rights and has a much wider meaning which includes the right to live with human dignity, right to livelihood, right to health, right to pollution free air, etc. In fact the right to life includes everything that ensures a person’s full potential. Going by the above therefore it would be fair to say that most Indians cannot afford a life of dignity. The miners going inside a claustrophobic rat-hole, breathing sulphurous gases and unsure of returning to the earth’s surface in the evening are barely existing; not living. Article 21 for them is a mere paper tiger that will never be made good. But that is because they are poor and powerless to demand better labour laws.
Post the December 13 incident it will be interesting to watch if the apex court will continue to allow the disgraceful rat hole mining practice which reduces humans to the status of rats. Human life cannot be sacrificed at the altar of greed and profiteering.