Social Activists and NGOs

An article in Times of India prompts me to write this post. I am just going to vent out my frustrations and opinions on NGOs and some National Social Agencies. (Article is not found on the TOI website)

Duelling with the city police was an article under the City Lights of the Times of India on 26th Jan ‘09. The gist of the story is the National Commission for Women member Ms Nirmala Venkatesh going to a police station in Chennai with a posse of journalists and an 80 year old woman. The reason is the police harass this woman who sells biscuits in street. The filmy way of the whole episode was very graphically presented by the Times. It also said the NCW member demanded the constables to salute her for the post she holds and demanded justice for that old women who was harassed for hawking her wares in the street.

There are two points here.

1. The police had a valid point that the lady was a traffic hindrance. This is very common in the cities, where the vehicles, the cows, the pedestrians, the hawkers and peddlers jostle for space on the roads. These hawkers with their wares occupy every space on the pavement making pedestrians to walk on the road and face all sort uncertainties.

2. Even if your are the President of India, you don’t go around putting your weight. Respect is commanded not demanded. Why do a lowly person salute the higher up? It is not the status or the position he holds, it is out of respect and adoration. This lady who was a MLA from Karnataka, this is not the first time she has troubled the police, parking in no parking areas and accusing the traffic policeman of bribery.

Has Ms Nirmala Venkatesh seen this issue on a different angle and enquired about all the mitigating circumstances in the alleged harassment of the police? What right has the NCW member demand the police to salute her?

The NGOs and these agencies are becoming more and more of a pain. They think their cause is the most important issue in the society, but have seen the other side of the argument? Human rights mean rights of all, not just the oppressed or the downtrodden.

By obstructing the traffic the lady has caused inconvenience to the cops, the drivers and the pedestrians. So what about their rights? Every situation has another side to it and I would like these people to enquire the full incident before making a dramatic entrance to the scene.

Yes, it is fine if the NGOs and the social activists have a zealous approach to their cause, but it should be done within the parameters of law and the rights of others.