“In this tropical country, it is considered sound socialistic policy to deny the people what little science and technology offer to mitigate the rigours of heat and promote productive work. Air conditioning, for instance, which should be brought within reach of every office and factory and home by cheap mass production and even state subsidy is deemed a luxury and sought to be taxed out. And so it goes on in this ancient country of ours and it may go on being ancient, as the cycle of summer and winter marks the passing years of planned deprivation.”
MAY 22, 1970
Toll of the heat wave
THEY SAY IT NEVER RAINS BUT IT POURS. HOW ONE WISHES IT does now. For what is worse is that it never shines but it scorches. Especially in May, the month of the dog days. And this year is said to be the most scorching ever in fifty years. The rising toll of deaths from sunstroke in many States, from distant Bihar all the way west across Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat and down south across Vidarbha and Andhra Pradesh, indeed bears grim and ample testimony to it. As many as 650 are reported dead while the number of those on the brink in hospitals is countless, as the merciless heat mows down more and more straining the over-stretched resources of those institutions. Such casualties are but part of the sad story. Thousands in parched Rajasthan clamour for water to drink, since the lakes and tanks and wells have gone dry. And in some places in Central India, the worst is yet to come, as the hottest part of the year is still ahead.
May be that unlike unemployment or starvation deaths, one cannot blame the Government for this seasonal visitation. The weather still defies science and the satellite has yet to be launched that can eclipse the angry sun. But is there nothing that can be done about it, beyond the numerical solace of the euphemistic metric system that puts the mounting temperature in the forties, when it is really a burning 110 or more? Not a year has passed without its toll of deaths from sunstroke and yet have the people been told effectively about the elementary precautions to be adopted, such as consuming some extra salt to offset its hazardous loss in perspiration? And how many of the toilers on the roads (so bereft of shady avenue trees) can boast of a pair of chappals or some headgear to ward off the heat? As for water even to drink, what a shame that two decades of planning have still left thousands of villages without dependable supplies!
Perhaps one has to sweat it all out, until the monsoon sets in again, quenching the thirsty earth and reviving man and beast. But cannot one expect that the governments in the States and at the Centre also will not forget that every coming year will have its hot summer and whatever could be done to make the next one at least less unendurable should be thought of. What the country loses is not merely so many lives. The entire work of the nation in factory and office is slowed down during the summer months, as the heat enervates and immobilises all. But in this tropical country, it is considered sound socialistic policy to deny the people what little science and technology offer to mitigate the rigours of heat and promote productive work. Air-conditioning, for instance, which should be brought within reach of every office and factory and home by cheap mass production and even State subsidy is deemed a luxury and sought to be taxed out. And so it goes on in this ancient country of ours, and it may go on being ancient, as the cycle of summer and winter marks the passing years of planned deprivation. It is some consolation perhaps that since the sizzling days are with us now, the monsoon cannot be far behind.
Reference:
The First 100
A Selection of Editorials, 1878-1978, THE HINDU, VOLUME I