The Indifference We Have Build As People of India

Disclaimer: This piece might come out as a very unpopular opinion. But if you are reading this, please read it till the end.

The title must have made it amply clear as to what I wish to talk about today- the killing of a 26 year woman in broad daylight by her husband with countless people in attendance doing absolutely nothing. I am sure most of us have been enraged by the act along with cluelessly wondering as to why no one came up to save the poor soul.

I wish to answer part of our doubts with a psychological theory that states to explain why people don’t stand up to help in public. This is not the first time we are seeing public passiveness as a factor leading to avoidable deaths. Countless accident victims lose their lives every day just because no one had the courage to help them- fearing the consequences and worrying about the hassle.

Well this happens due to something called ‘diffusion of responsibility’. In simple terms, envision a huge crowd in an auditorium, when asked to clap, the individual effort put by each person will be relatively less compared to when the audience only consists of let’s say 10 people.

Each person in the group tends to believe that the other one will do the needful and they don’t need to step up their act. This diffusion of responsibility is what leads to the phenomena called ‘Bystander Effect’ (Latane and Darley, 1969)

It is ironical that this theory was inspired by the gruesome murder of Kitty Genovese in the US in 1964 where the neighbours chose to stay mum despite hearing the shrieks of the poor woman all through the night.

According to this theory, the willingness of a person to step up and act in times of need reduces with the number of people around. Simply put, more the people around, less is one’s willingness to help. In this particular case, I believe the most important reason for no one intervening was the sheer fear of getting harmed themselves.

Having kept this idea out there, now let me talk about why exactly am I writing this piece today. After this incident happened, social media started flooding with the exact same post on every person’s story for days on end. This wave of virtual concern after every gruesome act appalls me now. Dear social media users, how exactly is the situation going to get better by blindly reposting the same content through and through.

Aren’t we all again falling into the pit of tokenism, where we express our blank support without backing it up with valid actions? What is it that we have done to make the lives of our fellow humans better after posting these stories? Sure, sensitization is important. But that is not the only step to betterment.

If you have reached till here, let’s start a conversation on how to better the situation. Are we calling out members of our family and social circle for masked instances of misogyny? Are we consciously taking efforts to not make comments that undermine others self respect? Are we really treating our fellow humans as our equal?

If not! Then that is where true change needs to begin. I remember what I said when my best friend shared this post with me visibly appalled by the developments and here I quote – “Honestly, I am immune to such news now. It doesn’t surprise me anymore” This indifference and tokenism that we have developed as the youth of our country is not going to take us anywhere. And I myself am to blame as well.

As long as we don’t start right where we are, with our own loved ones and their thoughts – we can’t aim for big waves in the ocean of injustice that our boats are swimming in. And till we find that shore of a better tomorrow, I just hope we learn to match our words with our actions, every step of the way.