Most of you would smile sarcastically, or scorn at me, and I really mean it. Don’t start to judge me; just pay attention to the following argument:
- Most of us fail to keep track of our vulnerabilities; physical, environmental, social, political, health, financial, familial, or whatever you may consider.
- This seemingly little lapse makes us do, what we would not have, had our mind timely reminded us of our vulnerability.
- This innocent action of ours exposes us to risk of varying degrees – small to fatal.
- And thus we ultimately suffer due to this lapse of our mind that might have sounded trivial in the beginning.
I am not trying to say that our mind has no information of our vulnerabilities. In fact, all that information is always there in our subconscious mind, but as we do not often remind ourselves of our vulnerabilities this information is not readily available for our reference.
Like our computer does to optimise functionality, and memory use – our mind also keeps only that information in active partition of our subconscious mind (which is readily available for use anytime) that is fetched, used, and referred every now, and then.
The subconscious mind
Just think it over – if you are a diabetic, and under medication – your subconscious mind cautions you of your diabetic nature as soon as you are tempted towards an ice cream. You might yield to the craving, but your mind keeps reminding you of your vulnerability. This is because every morning while taking the medicine you consciously remind your mind that you are diabetic. This piece of information therefore comes to reside in active portion of your subconscious mind.
Your subconscious mind however does not react in a similar fashion to your other vulnerabilities, of which you do not remind your mind that often. Remember, your mind has information of all your vulnerabilities, but it reacts only the ones of which you keep reminding it.
I know many of you are not be fully convinced with this argument.
So, lets take an example – still better if you experiment with it later.
For this we have to consider some vulnerability of which one is not very often reminded – something not like your diabetic pill, but something with relatively long recurrence interval, still better if it does not occur periodically at a regular intervals – say like an earthquake.
Earthquake: The case study
Yes, an earthquake – that would be perfect; (i) it does not occur every now, and then, (ii) it sometimes has long recurrence interval, (iii) it does not occur at regular intervals, and (iv) still most of us in India are vulnerable to it.
So, going by the general premise, if not all, large proportion of people should be aware of their seismic vulnerability.
But then, how do we assess their state of awareness?
Knowledge of “Seismic Zone” of their area of residence could well be one such criterion.
Don’t you think that would be a bit technical?
What about previous earthquakes in the region?
That sounds cool.
Moreover, it is the hazard history of a region that scientists often utilise for deriving various hazard, and vulnerability related functions for an area. So, if the people are aware of previous earthquake incidences, they can be considered as being aware of their seismic vulnerability.
As we do not have time to run the entire experiment, I would be narrating my experience on this, and you are to validate the same in your surroundings whenever you have time, or an opportunity of doing so.
The results are sure to be unbelievable, as these sounded to me first.
The ground reality
Both during formal, and informal interactions over previous more than two decades in different parts of the country, I have been asking people to recollect “the first earthquake that jolted the subcontinent?”
You would be surprised to know that not more than 2% of the respondents, most of them well educated, could remember an event predating 1991. You would be even amazed to know that not all from Uttarakhand could recollect the 1991 Uttarkashi Earthquake, and only 10% could recollect the date of the event correctly.
So, there exists general perception across the country that Uttarkashi Earthquake (October 20, 1991) was the first one to hit the subcontinent. It is interesting to note that overwhelmingly large proportion of the respondents did remember one or the other earthquake that happened after Uttarkashi- though not in the correct order; Latur (September 30, 1993), Jabalpur (May 22, 1997), Chamoli (March 29, 1999), Bhuj (January 26, 2001), Kashmir (October 8, 2005), Sikkim (February 14, 2006), Gorkha (April 25, 2015), Dholka (May 12, 2015), and Sonitpur, Assam (April 28, 2021).
I now put forth the same facts, but from another perspective, and that might catch your attention better.
It is interesting to note than not many in Gujarat – Maharashtra could recollect Bombay (May 26, 1618), Gujarat (June 16, 1819), Rann of Kutch (June 19, 1845), and Koynanagar (December 11, 1967) earthquakes.
In the northeast people hardly remembered Cachar (January 10, 1869), Shillong (June 12, 1897), Assam (August 14, 1932), and Assam (August 15, 1950) earthquakes.
People of Bihar have at the same time forgotten Kathmandu (August 26, 1833), and Bihar-Nepal Border (January 15, 1934) earthquakes.
People in Kashmir and Himachal did not remember Kashmir (June 6, 1828), Srinagar (May 30, 1885), Kangara (April 4, 1905), and Kinnaur (January 19, 1975) earthquakes.
So is the case with the people of Uttarakhand, who did not remember Garhwal (September 1, 1803) and Dharchula (September 29, 1980) earthquakes.
The fading affect bias
Some of you might correlate this nature of the masses with an ostrich that after submerging its head deep into the sand becomes unaware of the threats around, and tends to feel secure. Those of you thinking so are however not totally correct, and there exists little justification in blaming the masses for their unawareness.
Out here, I would like to emphasise that various human emotions, and reflexes – aggression, love, fear, submissiveness, anger, and the like – were imbibed in us during the course of evolution, as these helped this relatively unspecialised species in successfully overcoming the challenges put forth by the vagaries of nature, and survive successfully. Survival of the community, and continuity of the species have always been primary concerns for all living beings, and not humans alone. These emotions, and reflexes helped humans in replacing struggle, strife, and competition by mutual cooperation, and support that made survival possible. Because of these we even refuted “survival of the fittest”, and very often the close knit community provided better survival opportunities to relatively less competent ones, while the more competent were eliminated by war, and strife.
But then, evolution also hard wired humans to forget unpleasant memories fast. This, fading affect bias, helped humans in overcoming adversities, carrying on with the chores of routine life, and thus making survival smooth, and effortless. Going by it, there seems nothing wrong with people not remembering previous tragic events in their surroundings.
But then, many of you might very well argue that the outcome of the various battles – Tarain, Buxur, Haldi Ghati, Plassey, and Panipat, were not pleasant, but still we remember them correctly. According to the fading affect bias these should have been forgotten long back.
The argument put forth is justified, strong, valid, and at the same time intelligent. We would certainly have forgotten these completely, had our folklores, and educational curriculum not kept the memories of these alive to this date.
Lacking system to set things right
At this juncture majority of you might agree to my premise that, “Just because there exists no organised system to remind us of our vulnerabilities, we tend to forget these, and fall prey to the risk.”
Taking “organised system” in the foregoing premise literally you might try holding the state responsible for this lapse. One however needs to be aware of the capabilities, and limitations of the state.
It introduced disaster management in the CBSE curriculum long back with the same intention, but in its efforts to make the related textbooks standard, and universal it lost touch with the local flavour, and ground realities, and thus ended up with monotonous, theoretical narratives that hardly have perceived impression, or impact.
Attention of most of you is sure to be drawn towards the use of media for mass awareness. It is no doubt a brilliant idea. If advertisements can sell weird products by manipulating human psychology, and making a positive impact on our subconscious decisions, these can certainly change people’s perception towards safety, and security that unfortunately is not a high priority item for most of us.
“Safety not being our priority” can be better appreciated by some harsh but real facts; (i) we prefer buying even prescription drugs from the chemist rather than consulting a physician, (ii) we have the habit of saving medicines and using these in future on similar symptoms, often without validating the expiry date, (iii) we tend to store highly hazardous material like LPG cylinder in more than prescribed quantity, and at a precarious place in our houses, (iv) we do not have a proper first aid box in our houses, (v) we loathe seatbelt and helmet, (vi) despite having bought life insurance cover we consider home insurance an undue burden, and (vii) even those opting for home insurance restrict the cover to fire, and theft alone, as if these are the sole hazards we are prone to.
As has already been accepted advertisements, and use of media could make a major dent in bringing forth mass awareness. But you know how state sponsored advertisements work. One way or the other, the main message in these is invariably subtle, and what the intended beneficiary catches is the achievement of the ruling party or image of the person in power. The real message that could have lasting impact is deliberately kept in the background, or not communicated at all for reasons obvious to you, me and everyone around. This scenario is not going to change as reduced vulnerability of the masses is not going to translate into electoral gains in the democratic setup of ours where there always are gong to remain more burning issues to influence such decisions. So risk reduction is not going to become a political agenda, and thus always a low priority action item for bureaucracy.
We have to act to ensure safety
We have so far understood that we are not programmed to remember our vulnerabilities, and this is the primary cause of our not making conscious effort for vulnerability reduction, voluntary compliance of safety norms, and thus we suffer repeatedly due to risks to which be unconsciously submit.
If you are not conscious of your vulnerability, how can you convince your mind to prepare for the event, and comply to safety measures? In that case you are bound to be caught unaware in future as well.
The state is not really going to help us much, but then there has to be a way out.
First and foremost, we have to understand that these are our vulnerabilities, and we have to do something for regularly reminding ourselves of these.
How do you really get reminded of your daily diabetic pill?
Does a state sponsored advertisement or radio program reminds you of that?
NO, in bold and capital.
You have associated that reminder in your subconscious mind, may be with your breakfast, may be morning coffee or tea, may be some other daily ritual. Whatever it be, if you are reminded of the pill there has to be an association that rings the alarm.
Likewise, why not note down all your vulnerabilities in a journal, vision board, or some other place that you routinely go through.
Remember, there has to be list of all your vulnerabilities; physical, environmental, social, political, financial, familial or whatever you may consider.
For some days, or till these are engraved in your subconscious mind, you have to go through these, and consciously think about these. After that it would become part of you.
All your decisions would then naturally be risk informed, for you would then always be reminded of your vulnerability, as you are reminded of your diabetic status.
Remember, even though the stakes are high, the solution is simple, and practical.
And mind you there are no price tags attached; it is all free. Believe me, you would not regret practicing this solution.
So, why not give it a try; at least for the sake of your loved ones.
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