On September 27, 2013, a large apartment building in the heart of Mumbai collapsed, and so far the death toll has been estimated upwards of 50 people. Sources such as the Times of India and British Reuters has connected this event to many other building collapses across India's big cities in the past 6 months. Occurrences similar to this building collapse in Mumbai are not uncommon, with 4 building collapses in June in Mumbai alone. Many across India has attributed such tragedies to illegal construction, often utilizing second-hand materials and inferior methods. So far, many of the construction workers and managers involved have been convicted of charges ranging from manslaughter and culpable homicide all the way up to murder. The families of the victims were given 100,000-200,000 rupees ($1600-$3200) for compensation.
1) Do you believe that the families of the victims should have received greater compensation? Why?
2) What do you think is a reasonable way for the Indian government and local authorities to prevent any more illegal construction?
ReplyDeleteIt is a great shame that so many people in India are dying unnecessarily due to the selfishness and the carelessness of construction. The frequency of collapses of buildings in cosmopolitan cities in India shows the widespread infraction of Article 3 of the Human Right Declaration which guarantees people life, liberty, and security. In my opinion, more compensation is not the answer to the greed of the proprietors who break construction laws to save money. Instead of being greedy, the proprietors should follow Gandhi's principle of "desirelessness" and live simply, trying to be selfless in what they do. Rather, these people are being individualistic and putting the common good behind their personal motives. The government has already set standards for the constructors to meet in apartment buildings, but to decrease the frequency of these collapses, it should also enforce more thorough checks and enforcements of these standards. This social sin can also be eradicated if people are educated about and made aware about the ill effects of selfishness and the far-reaching consequences of constructions made with inferior methods.