A fixed pattern emerges when man-made tragedies claim lives: the family members of the deceased are inconsolable and in tears, shock and anger are expressed by friends and relatives, politicians go vocally hyper targeting the ruling dispensation and the authorities for conditions leading to the tragedy, and the government announces compensation to the families of the dead and the injured. In most cases, these are passed off as “accidents”, for which compensation becomes justified. And then, the tragic incident recedes in public memory, only to be refreshed when another one occurs. It’s almost a template.
But what is missing – or is compromised – is common sense, the absence of which led to the tragedy, or the application of which could have prevented it altogether in the first place.
Common sense is an innate ability to perceive and judge situations based on experiences that are widely shared among people. It does not require special scientific training to develop common sense, but rather is based on simply observing and experiencing the world around us and knowing what to do and what not to do – in this case, with safety in mind.
For instance, when water is boiling and bubbling, we know we should not put our hand into it; if a car is speeding, we know we should not come in its way; we don’t allow kids to run around on the roads unattended. We anticipate the adverse consequences and stay out of its way to live unharmed.
Take the categories of tragedies that have occurred. Deaths in high-speed vehicle crashes; pedestrians dying while arbitrarily crossing the road, or walking on it due to the absence of footpaths, and getting run over by speeding vehicles; landslide deaths; deaths due to an electrocution when people come in contact with live electric wires carelessly allowed to hang within touching distance; Chinese ‘manja’ slitting the throats of unsuspecting two-wheeler riders; deaths due to tree falls; deaths by falling into open manholes during flooding; deaths due to asphyxiation while cleaning the drain… the list is long! But they all commonly display a lack of common sense either on the part of the victims or the authorities in ensuring safety.
The latest is about seven workers getting crushed to death on Thursday morning when a huge boulder weighing several tonnes got detached and collapsed on them at a quarry in Huluvenahalli village in Tavarekere on Bengaluru’s outskirts. Heavy stones being loaded into a tractor in an upper quarry slipped and dislodged the large boulder which collapsed on 16 workers working in the lower quarry. Five sustained severe injuries while four escaped unhurt.
The question is: why would quarry works be allowed to proceed at two different levels simultaneously, knowing that if anything went wrong at the upper quarry, as it did, it would harm the workers below? That too, in a quarry where rock blasting and drilling are common, and which can result in cracks developing in the stone hillocks? Was there no logic or common sense in anticipating it? Did no one expect that the tragedy could occur? And yet it did, with a conspicuous lack of common sense by the workers, the supervisors and the owners – the latter two themselves said to be absent at the site when the tragedy struck.
It was only after the tragedy that some social activists have alleged that they had sent alerts to the authorities a month ago that the quarries in the region were operating without the mandatory no-objection certificates. Why was it not pursued by the authorities? It is only now – after seven have died – that it is being pointed out that the quarry workers are treated like ‘slaves’ and that they are made to work without protective gear in dangerous conditions. It is always in retrospect that all these allegations come up, never proactively to ensure the safety of the people to prevent deaths or maiming.
We pride ourselves on being part of a welfare state. But, common sense is very essential in a welfare state, in which right to life and safety is a prime right of the citizens, be they executives in corporate firms, daily labourers working in quarries or mines, or any individual in whatever profession. Common sense is a crucial factor in ensuring safety and welfare of the citizens without exceptions.
Most importantly, common sense helps build positive anticipatory life skills. In fact, it is an essential life skill. When developing life skills is being given so much importance, common sense has to be a part of it.
Extreme natural catastrophes apart, tragedies do not simply occur. In most of them, the human factor is involved. And what is most critical is the failure of common sense – a failure that turns into a killer that snuffs out lives, because absence of common sense removes our anticipatory guards and makes us completely vulnerable...even to death!
