Where is dignity?

Over the last few days. I have been fervently following the news related to the 28 deaths in the Beggars Rehabilitation Colony in Bangalore. As one digs deeper, one begins to see the inhuman conditions these people have been kept in and as one reporter pointed out, almost akin to a concentration camp. Concentration camp? Did I hear that right? Are we in a state of emergency? Are these people dangerous? No. Then, why are they subjected to such inhuman conditions. It is horrifying to hear some of the stories that are coming out from various news reports. A woman lying dead in her own blood and excreta http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90516/death-not-leveller-here.html. Dead individuals being dumped unceremoniously in the nearby crematorium. http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90510/dumped-alive-crematorium.html.

The beggars fighting with each other to go in the van to cremate their dead companions because they can get scramble around in the garbage for some edible food at the crematorium left by other visitors or at the first opportunity available attempt to run to save their lives. Isn't the rehab center meant to help them get out of the inhuman conditions on the streets and give them a life of dignity. Isn't it ironic that they need to run away from the rehab centre to actually protect their dignity. Isn't it surprising that they should feel that the streets are safer?

There have been reports of lack of bedding, warm blankets and sufficient toilet facilities. People are made to sleep on the cold floor, there is only one attending doctor for over 2500 inmates and most of them are not taken to the hospital for treatment because they are sufficient staff and staff who are there couldn't care less. The facility has a capacity for 900 individuals and over 2500 individuals have been cramped together. There aren't sufficient cooking utensils available to serve food. The food is served by piling up rice on the floor. Reports have pointed out that the buttermilk had dead bugs and mosquitoes floating in them and the inmates are served only one meal a day.

There has also been speculation around organ removal and smuggling when inmates are taken to the hospital for treatments and then they are dumped in the crematorium to rot and die. Out of the 286 deaths recorded in the last one year, all of them have been shown as natural deaths. Isn't this unbelievably surprising.

There seems to be nexus between the police, the politicians and the care-takers at the Rehab center. Police tend to pick up even healthy daily-wage labourers and street vendors and put them in the rehab center and subjected to these inhuman conditions they tend to fall to diseases and die.

Does all this even sound real in the fast growing metropolis in the country?

Have been scooped down to such low levels of inhumanity and lack of compassion that we are subjecting our own kinds to such dreadful conditions? Do not the care-takers and politicians feel anything at all? Does it not affect them that a woman was lying dead in her own blood and excreta for many days? Does not the stench of death and disease reach their soul and stir it up to take action? Is this also one more incident to gain political mileage and do a scathing attack on the present government, even demanding the the CM resign?

For many of us as readers, is this one more news of the day read in the same breath as some film star sneezing and forgotten with the reducing coffee in my morning cup? Have been become so immune to what's happening in the society around us? Have we become so self-centered in our own lives that it no longer bothers us that someone's father or mother or family member are being subjected to such torture in our own backyard? Are we not interested in holding the government accountable for the Rs. 21 Crores they allocated towards this Rehab center and yet they are unwilling to spend Rs. 6 to provide a hygienic meal to the inmates?

Is this the world I live in? and Is this the world I wish to leave as a legacy for my children? I dread it.

Where is dignity in life and death anymore. Is dignity something that today comes with one's wealth and standing in the community. Are not the poor, deprived and orphaned deserving of dignity?

Do we not fear that this inhumanity can become all encompassing and engulf the entire society in the years to come? Do we not fear that we are becoming as in-human as the people perpetrating this torture.

Is this time to take action? Definitely Yes!


More reports on the conditions on these beggars in the rehab home.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90523/if-only-cm-had-visited.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90522/bangarappa-demands-judicial-probe.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90521/pil-seeking-inquiry-death-beggars.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90520/they-ran-away-good.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90516/death-not-leveller-here.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90514/vip-visits-fail-lift-mood.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90513/they-died-gastroenteritis.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90511/only-five-food-inspectors.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90510/dumped-alive-crematorium.html

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/90227/troubled-conscience.html