We must find a solution that is humane but still works

Visitors to India are often shocked by the contrasts they see on our streets.

There is extreme wealth visible — even more than before as conspicuous consumption has increased over the last decade of big diamonds and bigger weddings— but there is also extreme poverty.

 

How, they ask, can we go blithely about our lives ignoring the people who sleep on our pavements, the small children forced to work to survive, the disabled individuals who thrust the stumps of their arms or legs forward as they beg for a living?

 

   There are answers to those questions and we give them all the time. Yes, India has always been a land of contrasts. And yes there is poverty on display but there is much less of it than before and we have the figures to prove it. And so on.

 

   While these responses may make logical sense they don’t really answer the fundamental problem that many Western visitors have with the Indian middle class: are we so brutalised by the misery we see every day that we have learned how to blind ourselves to the suffering? Are we now immune to horrifying poverty and deprivation? Why doesn’t the Indian middle class go out and do something about the tragedies on the streets.

 

    To that, we finally have an answer.

 

   The middle class has spent the last few days shedding tears for the suffering of street dwellers. We have demonstrated on the roads of our cities. We have railed against the authorities who have let things get to this stage. We have pledged to help to make things better. It is our duty, we say, to prevent an even greater tragedy from occurring by fighting for the rights of those who live on the streets to live with freedom and dignity.

 

   Brutalised? Immune to the suffering we see around us? Certainly not. We care and our hearts have been deeply touched.

 

   But here’s the thing. We are not crying about people. We are weeping for dogs.

 

 Before we go much further, a few clarifications. I do not believe we should mistreat animals. (And that extends beyond dogs though I probably draw the line at street rats.) I do not support any move that will cause pain and suffering to street dogs. I respect the sentiments of those who are protesting about the Supreme Court judgement on Delhi’s street dogs. And I see their point when they say the solutions suggested by the judgement may be impractical and will cause pain to dogs.

 

   Equally I accept that the time has come for us to do something about street dogs. According to The Times of India, over 10,000 people get bitten by dogs in India every day. India has among the highest number of rabies deaths, nearly double the figure for China which is number two on the list.

 

   This is according to official figures. But, adds the Times, the government’s figures may be an underestimation. While the official number of rabies deaths is 305, some believe that real number could be nearer 18,000. And the problem is increasing. The number of dog bite incidents came down during Covid but has more than doubled since then.

 

   So you would have to be nuts to deny that there is a serious problem. Most sensible people who object to the Supreme Court judgement do not dispute that something needs to be done. They just think that the Court has written out the wrong prescription.

 

"What is it about the Indian middle class that makes us largely immune to the suffering of human beings but drives us to tears of anger when we hear of the sufferings of dogs?"

   For instance, Shekhar Gupta, the editor of The Print tweeted: “Societies/cities have tried methods way more brutal than our hon’ble Supreme Court to ‘banish’ stray dogs. They’ve all failed. Here, a picture from Karachi where it’s routinely done. Solutions lie in urban reform, sterilisation and empathy. Not retributive mass brutality.” He included a picture of a row of dead dogs to illustrate his concerns.

 

   I take his point. There may be much better ways of saving people from dog bites and the scourge of rabies and we should explore and examine them.

 

   In my experience you don’t find as many stray dogs in European and American cities. But Bangkok and some other Asian cities have gone through similar public controversies while trying to cope with street dogs (or Soi Dogs as they call them). I am not sure that the Thais have found the right answer yet but my own sense (based on anecdotal evidence and personal experience rather than any data) is that it is now less dangerous to walk on Bangkok’s streets than it was a decade ago; and it’s certainly less dangerous than Delhi. And judging by the figures I have seen, Delhi is not even the centre of the problem. Such states as Maharashtra have many more dog bite cases than the national capital.

 

   So let’s agree on a minimum agenda. Ignore all those who say that nothing needs to be done and street dogs should roam free even if they bite thousands of people every day. But let’s respect those who argue that we must try and find a solution that is humane but still works.

 

  Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s go back to where we started. What is it about the Indian middle class that makes us largely immune to the suffering of human beings but drives us to tears of anger when we hear of the sufferings of dogs? (And it’s just dogs. If the authorities were to round up the pigs who wander around the streets of so many of our cities, I doubt if we would hear a cheep out of the dog-protestors. Likewise with buffaloes.)

 

   Why does the middle class not feel as deeply about the homeless people who live on the same streets as the dogs? Why do we find it easier to fight for dogs than the wretched human beings who exist at the margins of our society?

 

  And that’s before we get into politics. Many of the people assailing the humanity of those who want to act against stray dogs could not even find Manipur on a map let alone care about the lakhs of people who have seen their lives destroyed over the last few years or the thousands who have died. Are human lives worth less than dogs’ lives when they are lost far away from us?

 

   Why do the people who complain that, contrary to what the Supreme Court thinks, our municipalities are incapable of offering dogs the shelters they need, not worry about the pathetic shelter offered to refugees and victims of political persecution? Why don’t they worry about the brutal way in which so many migrants are picked up and thrown out? Why, for so many years, did the middle class turn a blind idea to the suffering of the Kashmiri Pandits who lost their homes to ethnic cleansing? Why do we look away when we hear stories about state governments bull dozing people’s homes on the flimsiest of pretexts? Why have we stopped paying attention to stories about men being lynched on suspicion of transporting beef?

 

   I could go on but I think you get the point.

 

   I am no one to be judgmental about others. I belong to the same middle class and I am also guilty of callous neglect.

 

   But when you see the uproar about dogs don’t you ever stop to think if our self-obsessed middle class has got to the stage where dogs matter more than people?

 

   Let’s fight to treat dogs humanely. But let’s not forget the humans who are routinely denied their rights and their dignity.