WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Who is not interested in the details of the huge controversy of Richard Gere trying to kiss Shilpa shetty, that there was a spat between Salman and Shahrukh , that Deepika Padukone is finally going around with Ranbir Kapoor, that Abhi- Ash went to Tirupathi immediately after their wedding, that the hero of Jane Tu Ya Jane Na is Amir Khan’s relative? Who doesn’t wait for the next CRICKET SEASON desperately(forgetting that the national game of India is Hockey)?The answer- A LOT of people are interested,a whole lot of people. Now, who remembers the total number of bomb blasts we have had in the past three years?Who cares about the details of these blasts? How many of us have bothered to think that it is not just the government that is to blame for these things, we are also a part of it? How many of us even know, what is it about us, as a “Common Man”, that is making it so easy for the terrorists to carry out their operation. And how many of us wouldn’t think that this is again one of those “Really Boring” articles about trying to change the society and discard it at the first glance? Answer- Very Few.

I am not trying to say that no one should be interested in film gossip or cricket or any form of entertainment, it is just that why can’t we show the same enthusiasm and interest when it comes to serious issues that really affect the nation? We all unanimously agree that there are things that need to be changed in the country, but bringing any kind of reform in the country, however small it might be, is absolutely impossible. Why? It is us who form the so called society and if each one of us decides to reform ourselves, it will reflect by default in the society. We have two ways of addressing the people of India, one is “inclusive” of ourselves and the other, “exclusive”. Whenever there is a Susmita Sen or Abhinav Bindra or a successful satellite launch happening for the world to see, we say – “We” the people , on the contrary, in case of a riot, blast or any mishap, we say- “They” the people of India should do something about this. Isn’t this completely laughable? Aren’t we totally forgetting here that we are also a part of “THEM”, the people of India whom we very conveniently blame for every wrong thing that happens?
We all feel that crime, terrorism and all these things are increasing by the day and have reached a point wherein we now feel it can’t be controlled. How long are we going to keep blaming the government for everything? We think that as citizens, we just need to pay the taxes and the job is done. The rest is for the government to handle. Don’t we have any responsibility whatsoever as the citizens of the country? In case if we are forgetting, it is majorly our responsibility to follow the rules and regulations correctly because they have been made for us in the first place. Considering the huge population of India, we have to understand that it can’t be completely controlled by the government, we need to contribute too. Few major factors because of which the situation in the country has been deteriorating so badly are- Ignorance, Lack of concern and Pessimism. Especially us- the youth of India of which the country is supposed to take pride in, we tend to be ignorant of anything that doesn’t entertain us. For most of us, even holding a conversation concerning the matters of nation is completely “UNCOOL”. We don’t care even if the rest of the world is dying, as long as our family is fine. For those of us who bother to care and get affected by these things, tend to take a backseat by thinking, nothing can be done about this country and eventually learn to live with it. We don’t understand that these are the things that encourage the miscreants to take advantage of the situation. Criminal activities weren’t very common earlier because people were more concerned and aware of whatever went around. So bottom line is- this has to change.

Now after all this background building, lets get back to the real topic – What to do about bomb blasts and similar terrorist activities? Well, there are a lot of solutions that we can think of, but this article is not about educating people about all the terrorist groups and who could be behind these things and all that. This is about, no matter whoever is behind such kind of activities, we should be able to protect ourselves. I completely understand that the police and the intelligence agencies are trying to do a decent job in trying to catch hold of people, but that is not a permanent solution. How many people are we going to keep catching? You get rid of one today, you‘ll have someone else tomorrow. For a simple example, if we take a huge mall which is highly secured, where thousands of people come and go everyday, there must be a lot of these people who would be easily tempted to steal, but they can’t, not because they drop the idea but because the security is so tight that it will be easily detected and they will be caught. So the whole point here is PREVENTION. No matter whoever it is, there are some basic things that should be present in order to prevent this thing from happening.

Whenever we look at such kind of incidents, we are filled with rage and anger and the need to do something. But one of the main reasons why no one volunteers is because no one wants to risk his neck as all of us have someone or the other who are either dependent on us or care for us, and we can’t blame anyone for this. So why not come up with some solution which does not involve such kind of risks? Agreed that Bomb blast matter really needs to be addressed very seriously by the government, but there are simpler and really important things that need to be taken care of first by the people. If we look back at all the bomb blasts that have taken place in the past 3 years, the bombs had either been just left somewhere so that they would look like trash, or been kept in abandoned bicycles and other vehicles. What message do we get from all this? It’s high time we start following some rules and regulations and have a lifestyle more organized. The complete focus of this article is about these simple things that we can change in order to make it easy for the police and other intelligence agencies to carry out their work much more efficiently.

Here are a few day to day life matters which are really important and is in our own power to change:
Trashing etiquettes – Throwing trash or for that matter just anything, anywhere, on the street is a common practice, so common, that we have started to live with it as a part of our lives. Isn’t this something that we all can help? Haven’t we all felt atleast at some point of time that this has to change? But we all tend to put it away by blaming it on “THEM”. We never even try to do something about this because we have a habit for terming everything as “one of those major social reforms which can never happen in the country”. It is so easy to plant bombs in India because of this habit of ours. If we deal with our trash in an organized fashion atleast it will be difficult for these people to plant them so easily. Now what is the solution? How to deal with it?
- Installing more number of trash cans in every street, which can be used by shopkeepers, apartments and other residents.
- Introducing the use of trash bags to avoid any kind of loose trash.
- Employing a person who would be responsible for collecting the trash and throwing it in the cans.
- Building, apartment or street and locality authorities should arrange meetings and educate people regarding this issue and also have follow ups to ensure that the trashing rules are being followed well.


How to ensure security in this situation?
Employing people who would guard these common trash cans and check every trash can bag with a simple metal detector. Also train street dogs to sniff and detect bombs. Along with solving the trash problem, employment of people and stray dogs problem can also be dealt with this solution.
Although the installation of the cans and everything above is supposedly the responsibility of the government, but its high time we understand that we cant leave everything for the government to handle. people living in apartment buildings can all contribute a little and have a trash can, a guard and a trained dog for their building. Similarly four to five shopkeepers can get together and do the same and so on.This if distributed properly, will not be a major investment, but at the same time this will make a whole lot of difference.

Security and Awareness- It is a common observation in India that we are all very careless when it comes to health and safety. We all generally tend to take things for granted and ignore things which are really important. For instance, even if we find something unusual lying on the road side or a person acting a little strange, we tend to ignore it. While renting or buying apartments we hardly ever look into the security aspects except for a few. Most of us do not even know whom to contact in case of an emergency.
Even after all these incidents that have happened and reading and watching on television about a lot of these mishaps because of lack of security, we do nothing about it. There are some basic security measures that should be taken into consideration, be it residential or non-residential area:
-Centralized as well as individual fire and smoke detecting mechanisms in apartment complexes.
- A list of all the emergency contact numbers should be displayed in a board and also given to each family.
- A common security guard with metal detectors to check any major luggage or huge packets.
- Maintenance of visitors’ register to keep track of people coming in and going out.
- Any kind of deal related to property purchase or leasing should be completely documented and signed by both the parties. Specially in case of renting out apartments as it is a common practice in India to lease apartments to anyone without signing any legal documents.
- Building complexes , apartments and bungalows should make a group and form an association consisting of their neighbors and elect a head for it.
- Families should submit a proof of a criminal track record of every member atleast above the age of 15 to their respective associations. Specially the appointment of any domestic help should be dealt very carefully. This would be a major help in tracking down any kind of anti social elements.
- These associations should also be responsible for any kind of emergency in the neighborhood.
- Meetings should be held at least once in a month to discuss all the safety aspects and to promote and spread awareness regarding safety.
- Introduction of manual vigilance system, where- in a society can recruit people to take rounds around the society in bicycles in civil clothes to ensure security. Again this is a good safety measure and also will serve as an employment for someone in need.


PARKING LOTS-The whole concept of parking lots still has a long way to go in India. Except for the popular areas in major cities, there is no such thing as parking lots otherwise and even if there are, people do not care to park the vehicles there. This is a very serious issue because most of the blasts took place because of abandoned vehicles. There is a need to have more parking lots and moreover the parking lots need to be manned properly with guards having at least basic equipments of security.
One of the ideas for this is, instead of having parking lots in the same building as the shops or residence, we can have an entire building that‘ll serve as a parking lot for a few other buildings in common. If this is done in an organized fashion with provisions of having a record of the vehicle number plates and hidden security cameras, it will turn out to be a very good way of dealing with parking situation. This will not only prove to be a good solution for parking problems, but also in case of a mishap not much life will be affected.
The role of a common man here is to come up with such ideas and pressurize the authorities to work on them.

THE NEED FOR NATIONAL ID-One of the major reasons of tracking down criminals with ease in countries like the United States is the presence of a National ID system in the country, which is called a Social Security Number. This not only serves as a head count but also as a method of keeping a history of every individual. They also have a concept of CREDIT HISTORY, which is a way of mapping every thing that a person does, to his/her Social Security number, meaning right from making regular rent, phone etc. payments to getting driving tickets is all reflected in the credit history. This makes it extremely easy to get any kind of information about a person ,also since everything reflects in the credit history, people are careful about it and try to keep it as clean as possible as a lot of things like purchasing cars, houses etc. completely requires one to have a good credit history. Unless we introduce a head count system in India, things are not going to change at all. This is the most important thing that needs to be addressed at this hour.Agreed that introducing something like this in India sounds impossible at this moment, but if we start working on it now may be in the next decade or two, something would have changed. But for this it needs major investment in terms of massive servers and a lot more in order to handle that kind of data. The point is, we have people who can do it, it won’t be difficult at all to find database engineers who can work on it, but we need someone to invest in it. If all these software companies that are doing really well, come up with a proposal like this, it will be a very lucrative venture for them and at the same time it will solve one of the biggest needs of the country at this moment. Again, may be this isn’t something that a common man can help at all, but if people get together and pressurize the government and software companies, then there is a possibility.
Most importantly, one of the major purposes of such kind of terrorist activities is to cause complete chaos and confusion, social and religious riots. They are trying to play the old game of divide and rule and every time they do it, they succeed a little. The best we can do here is, no matter what message they are trying to spread, we stay together. Hate terrorism, hate the hatred that is causing such kind of things to happen. We can only beat this by being together and loving eachother more.
Hoping this would make some difference, some day…. Shyamala Balasubramanian

( MS Computer Engg, University of North Texas)
Email: shyam_etrx@yahoo.com