Social Responsibilities and Govt.

Came across this interesting article by Gurumurthy in Indian Express:

And yet ‘we’ are less civilised than ‘them’

[Assuming you have read the article]

Most of the responses I get from people are either about how materialistic ‘they’ are or the other extreme of taking great trouble of finding some instance where Indians did not help their fellow Indians, but rather harassed them.

But both the responses will be to miss the forest for the trees. The point there is not whether the Indian society is perfect or whether it is the worst society.

The point I am trying to focus is that Nations are not merely made by Govts, instead they are made by people/communities.

Let it be the govt banning child labour or domestic violence or more issues, the attitude these days among the common people seems to be that it is govt’s business to tackle social problems. They forget that a minister signing a paper to stop domestic violence in no way really changes the society, unless the individuals in the society are changed.

I don’t deny that we require laws. But laws are not the ultimate.

Aren’t we going more towards a situation where the individuals cease to think in the community terms and look to the govt for everything?

I am not expecting any answers… just thinking in that direction.