Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Monday, October 25, 2004
Ownership Society
As someone born and lived in India for about 25 years, I constantly thought about what makes India, the India we see, and why things are so messy. There are so many questions.
However Indians behave very similar to the rest of the world within their family. Family always comes first. In fact Indian families are more functional than the rest of the world.
However when we move out of the family circle, we feel an enormous dysfunction around us. Irrespective of the time and place, the feeling is universal. Government offices, Companies, Roads, anywhere else , we are sure to get a taste of this, on our daily life.
I think the reason for this dysfunction, lies in our way of determining ownership.
Ownership of not just property, but of tasks, of responsibility, of accountability, etc.
If we look at Indian families, the ownership is very clearly defined, eventhough it is not a written into law. Certain things are owned by the father and others go to the mother and so on. There is clarity in family.
However for the rest of the India, there is no such thing as clear ownership. For instance, our political system doesn't clearly define who owns what responsibilities to its people. For e.g., any city has a MLA, MP, Local Municipal representative and a Collector. The collector is a bureaucrat appointed by the Government. The other elected representatives don't have a clarity of their representations.
For e.g., MP is a member of Parliament and he represents the people of his constituency in the Lok Sabha. MLA is a member of Legislative Assembly and he represents his people in the State Assembly.
Now, Lets say we have broken roads, who is responsible for fixing it?
Is it the local representative, MP or MLA ?
The common man has enough trouble already to figure out who should he approach to solve problems that bother him. In my 25 years, I had no idea what are the responsibilities of each representative.
The key to our well being probably lies in clearly defining who owns what to their community.
As someone born and lived in India for about 25 years, I constantly thought about what makes India, the India we see, and why things are so messy. There are so many questions.
However Indians behave very similar to the rest of the world within their family. Family always comes first. In fact Indian families are more functional than the rest of the world.
However when we move out of the family circle, we feel an enormous dysfunction around us. Irrespective of the time and place, the feeling is universal. Government offices, Companies, Roads, anywhere else , we are sure to get a taste of this, on our daily life.
I think the reason for this dysfunction, lies in our way of determining ownership.
Ownership of not just property, but of tasks, of responsibility, of accountability, etc.
If we look at Indian families, the ownership is very clearly defined, eventhough it is not a written into law. Certain things are owned by the father and others go to the mother and so on. There is clarity in family.
However for the rest of the India, there is no such thing as clear ownership. For instance, our political system doesn't clearly define who owns what responsibilities to its people. For e.g., any city has a MLA, MP, Local Municipal representative and a Collector. The collector is a bureaucrat appointed by the Government. The other elected representatives don't have a clarity of their representations.
For e.g., MP is a member of Parliament and he represents the people of his constituency in the Lok Sabha. MLA is a member of Legislative Assembly and he represents his people in the State Assembly.
Now, Lets say we have broken roads, who is responsible for fixing it?
Is it the local representative, MP or MLA ?
The common man has enough trouble already to figure out who should he approach to solve problems that bother him. In my 25 years, I had no idea what are the responsibilities of each representative.
The key to our well being probably lies in clearly defining who owns what to their community.
