AMRIT BHANDARI
A number of studies and researches have been carried out on the topic of public awareness. Writers and publishers of these researches and studies often tout the impact of their findings in creating an increased level of social awareness in Nepalese society. Media reports and press releases from institutions working primarily on social and economic development appear every now and then to our knowledge. Furthermore, political parties, donor agencies and some non-governmental organisations in an effort to promote their vested interest have historically emphasised their performance reports only to make public feel that they’re only concerned on catch-as-catch-can initiatives. And there is one upper crust of the society that increasingly appears to be crediting to Maoist party that the heightened social, political and cultural awareness in the Nepali communities is the result of a decade-long internal conflict waged by the Maoists .What a credit theft!
As I reflect on the decade-long Maoist conflict and changing landscape of Nepalese society, I am always reminded of a line by Bijay Kumar in his article in a daily paper – “raising awareness in a society and making the society agitated are two different jobs.” As a student of social science and a development worker, issues pertaining to social awareness and its impact on societal harmony, wellbeing and human development are few areas I am truly passionate about and accordingly continue to engage and involve myself in learning, deciphering and writing about the topic. I wanted to dig deeper in the topic of social awareness this time and began my study bottom up. The lexical meaning of ‘awareness’ as defined by http://www.thefreedictionary.com happens to be the– “knowledge of, understanding of, appreciation of, recognition of, attention to, perception of, consciousness of, acquaintance with, enlightenment with, sensibility to, realization of, familiarity with, mindfulness of, cognizance of, sentience of.” As I flip through books on social sciences and related literature, I find what we call awareness is too broad and we’ve a long way to get there to be a society that’s fully cognizant of social and cultural issues for the society to be on the higher scale of human development index.
My personal research on the issue of awareness urged me to reassess the definitions of awareness as coined by self-declared elite group and self-declared intellectuals. I wonder why they never attempt to understand and explain through precise methodology and facts how Nepali societies are at a new height of social awareness as they claim. If the awareness as they assert is factual, one would imagine a greater harmony in societies, increased accountability and transparency in government offices and high level of professionalism in companies and respectful and healthy exercising of democratic rights. I believe a society with high level of awareness would not be engaged in violent strikes in the street of capital city burning tires that produces a hazardous smoke jeopardizing the human health. Ministers caught publicly in bribery activities wouldn’t hold power and cabinet wouldn’t decide to doll out cash from government coffer to political activists. Baban Singh, the most wanted person in the list of the police would have not been elected as a lawmaker by the people in the Constituent Assembly of Nepal if level of social awareness was at its best as claimed by reports and publications.
The credit frequently given to the people's war that stretched for more than ten years and cost thousands of lives – if by any means was a major contributor in raising political awareness in Nepal, were real, Nepalese people perhaps would not elect a candidate like Baban Singh. If the people's war had been successful in raising political awareness among the ordinary people, there would not be rampant cases of homicides, abductions and extortions across Nepal in the name of revolution. If awareness is defined in one's favorable spectrum it is essential that one have to self-evaluate his/her past activities. And there is another faction of so-called intellectuals who also claim and credit it trying to attest to the public that their activities and intellectual intervention have been successful to radiate awareness among the marginalized people. Contrary to the rising number of documented cases of Dalit issues such as challenges in collecting water from public taps, one strata of the society drums up that the years-long caste discrimination rooted in the Nepali communities has been reduced because of their involvement. What an irony!
Had the level of social awareness truly scaled up, we would have observed a respectful democratic exercise within society, conscientious public interaction and peaceful social debates. While the level of awareness may not be precisely quantified like demographic data, but there are time tested yardsticks such as the solution of conflicts on the basis of caste, religion, region, and communities that can provide a credible basis in determining level of social and human development. In a fully civilized, informed and socially and culturally aware society, people enjoy their rights that the state assured them without any discrimination on the basis of language, caste, region, politics or any other form. From what’s happening in Nepali society despite the claims of progress made by intellectuals and politics alike, I find that wrong approaches are being applied to achieve win over delicate issues like social awareness, justice and equitable distribution of societal rewards.
Presently, many institutions seem to be applying flawed approaches to reduce the caste discrimination by only mainstreaming Dalit people would not definitely solve the problem unless people from upper caste are aware of the rights of the lower caste people. However, making Dalit people agitated against upper caste people begets the new form of conflict in a society. Challenging and creating chaos in a society to obtain and enjoy rights of certain people and group doesn’t make a right example of civilized and responsible society as falsely attested by by intellects and social pundits.
The claim that awareness has been raised and people from all walks of life are able to fully exercise their rights while being aware of their responsibilities fails here to answer some critical questions. One could figure out how socially aware we are when the head of government, the prime minister has to take the lead in campaigning for one of the most basic jobs of metropolitan city, road cleaning and garbage disposal in pubic space. A populous political campaign or a lack of conscience? Mr. always-first probably knows the right answer. Those in the ranks, the elite folks and the intellectual ones would not throw their domestic waste to the streets from their car window. In an ideal society with heightened level of awareness, the ambulance would get its way to hospital without any traffic hassle, other drivers on the road would pay their special attention for the ambulance's siren and help the ambulance to get its way. But it’s unfortunate to see when critical life services like ambulances are mistreated and when doctors and nurses go on a strike when patient is fighting with his life. Education does only seem to do so much in life. Wisdom comes from a broader set of life’s lessons.
If our society were reasonably au fait with general principles of life and societies, the poor people would be knowledgeable about cleaning their hands before and after eating food, after using toilets; we could save thousands of lives every year. People would drink water and Jivban Jal at the time of dehydration that would save their life.
In a country where declaration of open defecation zone acquires headlines of newspapers, it is worthless to claim that awareness has been raised. It is not the fault and guilt of ordinary people; however, it is the serious question to those who claim that they have raised awareness in the societies. Moreover, if the political awareness were created during the people's war, there would not be such a significant delay in drafting the constitution of Nepal. In a country where political leaders are not aware of their roles and responsibilities, how could they claim that they have created awareness in the society? Awareness and conscience need to be reflected on their duty and assignments. Awareness is not a weapon to be used for the fulfillment of someone's interest by deceiving the ordinary people and making them agitated to take to street against one group for another, one community to others, one caste to another, and one region to another. It is necessary to understand the differences in between awareness and agitation and it takes wisdom to decipher that difference.
The writer has master's degree in Anthropology.
abamritofficial@gmail.com
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