Sabari Mehta felt glass and wetness under her palms. Pain tore through her ribs and she tasted blood. Far away in her head she could feel the glass shards causing untold pain. Sabari could not breathe; it felt like she was buried under a mountain. Now, she was hearing voices. “Arre mari nahi hai! Sar hila rahi hai...!” (Hey, she is not dead, she is moving her head...)Confusion, sounds, noise, confusion again. Sabari sat up, as her head spinned. Raghav lay on her right, bleeding too. It was all coming back to her. She reached out and touched Raghav’s arm. He groaned and called out to Ambi, their driver. Raghav and Sabari were heading to the railway station at 8:00 in the morning to board the 9:30 a.m. train to Ahmedabad. Ambi, their driver who had not one accident to his record, was driving them to the station. Just a little before the British Library near Camay Street a car came in at full speed, jumped the light and rammed right into their Santro. The Santro took the hit very badly – flew into the air, did a 3 1/2 spin and landed on its roof. Mercifully all three were wearing seatbelts, since Raghav was a stickler for rules. But the hit was a bad one, and both passengers had broken bones and some whiplash. As for Ambi, he took the hit worst, as he was heavily built. Sabari began to cry out for help, as the early morning vendors and office goers stood on and watched her. A bus or two passed by, paused, letting more people crane their necks to see the blood and tears, then raced away. Camay Street is very busy at that hour as small vendors begin to get their act together and many are crouched here and there washing clothes or brushing teeth. They all came, to watch. And they simply watched.Sabari and Raghav crawled out of the car’s rear window, through broken glass and gnarled metal – without help. Ambi who was bleeding profusely, was unconscious. Sabari sobbed pitifully, calling out for help, to drive them to a hospital... Not one eyelid batted. “Bhaiyya please, please, help karo...” she wept...Ambi was an inheritance from her father who she had lost two years ago. The blood was gathering around Ambi’s shoulders, and he seemed to have lost consciousness. Bystander 1: Don’t get involved in this. If anything happens to this guy mid-way, you are a dead duck if you get embroiled in this mess... (then to Sabari), “Madam, yeh to marega, humko bhi marogi kya?” Then after what seemed like an eternity, a PCR van came with three policemen. Hopeless and helpless she almost fell at their feet, “ Please, sir, help me take my driver to the hospital,” she said looking in the direction of the car which was a mass of metal. One of the policemen smiled at her – took his time – looked at his other two colleagues and said, “Madamji, hamari duty tho us laal batti tak hai, your car was hit beyond that limit, hamara area nahin hai”. And before she could even make sense, the van and the men drove on. Sabari was sobbing more in frustration and a sense that she was not going to win the battle for Ambi. For probably the first time in her life, she clasped her hands in prayer, ‘ I have to save Ambi, please do something.’ She could see her boyfriend Raghav sitting on the road, leaning on a water hydrant as more people gathered and more people stared, unmoved.Bystander 2: Police case hai. Don’t want to get involved. Phir Court ka chakkar! If this driver dies then we are finished. Bach gaya tho no problem, then the victim tells his tale. Man 3 to Man 2: Once I had helped an accident victim and the police asked me how do I know you did not cause the accident? And they harassed me for three months! As if a miracle, a car pulled up and a man came running towards her. Sabari recognised him as an old journalist friend from a theatre workshop she had attended. Seeing her torn salwar suit, bloodied kurta, he said, “Sabari, right? Heck, what happened?” His white car had a “batti” (red beacon) . It was clear from other motifs that he was in a VIP car. Sabari could not recall his name, her head spinned and her arm was bleeding quite badly. Pointing to Raghav she burst into more tears.Eswar Gupta, the journalist friend, called for the nearest PCR van and lo and behold, the same trio arrived! Sabari told him they had declined because it was not their ilaaka (jurisdiction). But they saluted the man, and ‘yes-sir’-ed him 20 times and called for an ambulance for Ambi. Sabari used Eswar’s phone to call friends; Raghav and her phones were damaged. Three friends arrived in 15 minutes; while Shantam helped the cops, Divekar took Sabari and Raghav to the hospital. Unable to reach the ambulance services, and seeing that Ambi was fast slipping, Shantam gingerly moved Ambi into his car and drove to City Care Hospital with Kabir Vasisht another friend, holding Ambi.Kabir: I am shocked. So many people had surrounded the wrecked car, yet not one would help. What is the matter with us? Shantam: In advertising, we use a principle called ‘social proof’. If others do it, then I will do it. This is why we use testimonials and endorsements in our ads. Salman Khan uses Revital and he is also saying it is awesome...then others will do likewise. Same reason why we use canned laughter in comedy shows... If one man decides to help, the others will roll up sleeves and get down to help.Kabir: I guess, the cops coming on the scene and walking away was the other reason for doubt, hai na? They must have wondered if the cops are not doing anything then there must be some reason...Read Analysis By Sanjay OakRead Analysis By Piyush TewariRead Analysis By Vishnu Sudarshan break-page-break City care’s emergency told him it was a police case and he should take the victim to a government hospital. “We cannot touch a police case,” said the attending doctor in Emergency. Shantam was infuriated. Here Ambi was bleeding and he did not even know how critical he was. He needed to call Ambi’s home and tell them, that was also vested with him...He burst out in anger at the hospital’s idiocy as other people nearby began mumbling.Out of nowhere, a senior looking person arrived and called some male nurses to take Ambi into emergency. Another nurse then asked Shantam to deposit Rs 20,000 with the hospital before any attention could be given to the victim. Shantam was taken aback; he did not have that kind of money. The head of emergency arrived, a Dr Girish Desai. When Shantam told him to start attending to Ambi while he went to get money from home, Desai said, “You cannot leave the hospital till the police arrives. We do not want a mess on our hands. Please fill these forms now..” And Desai handed him some medico-legal forms where Shantam would have to enter all kinds of data about himself.Another gentleman whose mother was in that hospital, and who was watching all the drama, tapped Shantam on the shoulder, gently. Then having gained his attention, he said in whispers, “You don’t want to fill that form.” Shantam grew alarmed as the man whose name was Ravinder Pahwa, said, “Once you put any data there you are in a mess for your whole life. Just trust me on this.... I have spent eight years of my life embroiled in a mess like this, all because I was eager to save a man’s life. You will be made a witness....”Shantam: But I am not a witness! I am a family friend who was called when the accident....Pahwa: Don’t waste your breath. They need all kinds of adhesives to seal the case. And you will be one. How do they care who you are? You are the man who brought the body to the hospital...Shantam: Sir, have mercy, the good man is alive!Pahwa: He won’t be, at this rate. And you will be named as the man who brought in the body. Do you think they will say that the victim was brought in alive and he died while everyone harangued? No. They will say your name and add, ‘ He brought in the body...’Shantam went pale, as Pahwa added, “There is another nightmare, trust me. I hear this is a hit and run case? Hmm... FIR has been lodged because you guys had found the bumper with the license plate. Finding evidence is itself dangerous. It’s best not to find evidence! The cops will find the perpetrator and release your data to him. Or, he will get his hands on this medico-legal form, because he must have, by now, hired a lawyer...He will never let you have one night of sleep after this. Your life will become a living hell...”Shantam’s heart pounded with guilt and fear. Should I be worrying about saving myself or saving Ambi? If Ambi dies, even then I am going to have sleepless nights! he groaned within. A prayer left Shantam – ‘I am trying not be selfish... but I am scared Bhagwan!’Late evening, Sabari was told by friends that the chap who had banged into her car had been identified but for some reason, the police weren’t willing to enter his information on the FIR, and were busy arranging some ‘settlement’. Sabari who had suffered two fractures and a broken jaw, was furious. She was not ‘settling’ anything. She would have the guy arrested and worse, she swore.Meanwhile Ambi was in emergency. He had lost a lot of blood and the doctors said something about ‘had you brought him early...’ Why didn’t someone call the ambulance in time? This is an era of mobile phones, how long does that take?” asked Ambi’s neighbour, who had also arrived.Raghav: There were so many people there, so many cars that passed by, so many who stopped and watched for a long time, but for some reason they did not even help get Ambi out of the car. Sabari and I tried to get him out and that resulted in her fracture getting worse.Pramarth (Raghav’s friend): Three out of four people will not come forward to help. In almost all cases, they fear legal complications. The problem is the law does not protect the Samaritan. If you get into a jam with the cops, there is no help you can get. And the cops also talk down to you!Meanwhile Sabari contacted a lawyer friend, Alok Sabharwal, and asked him to come post-haste so that she could ensure the FIR carried the culprit’s name. As she sat staring at Ambi through the ICU glass walls, she shook with hopelessness thinking how unfair life was. As the disbelief developed into grief, she kept hoping ‘I will wake up and find it is all a dream...’ But the dream had only begun! Now the police met her lawyer and much staring at feet happened as they communed intensely. Alok (the lawyer) pursed his lips and every time Shantam or Raghav sent him an SMS asking what was going on, he turned around and mimed - keep out!The advise given to Sabari and Raghav via Alok was this: take the bloodied settlement money that the culprit is offering and walk away, don’t get into this mess. Alok had put the 20 minute harangue into one sentence. He was the guy that applied the law, executed the law, walked with the law, upheld the law... but he was sadly a friend too... and he was offering Sabari and Raghav love and protection that was greater, better, more credible. Alok who was known to be a dare devil, risk taker, that day looked at Raghav and said, “Let’s be grateful to God that both of you are well and Ambi will come out of his surgeries too. I saw the face of his littlest daughter and my heart broke into pieces. How do you tell a child I could not save your daddy?”Raghav: Ok, can we cut out the tripe and tell me what happened there, Alok? Sabari: What happened to all your advocacy? Are you protecting people from a fractured law? Alok: Don’t get into this mess. Let’s get you guys home, it’s been a very long day. You both need to lie down...alok looked drawn. Sabari and Raghav could see that he was one who cared really that day, when he said what he did. He would know, he had seen it pan out before... Had the culprit really tried to settle? Why was Alok’s advocacy changing?But all they found out was this: The FIR was filed by the same cops and parents and relatives of their friends. They had spent a full day at the station trying to figure out what the delay was, the identity of the guilty party and so on. The police said they were moving heaven and earth to trace the car but the number plate looked suspiciously false. It was to Alok that they spoke. And they insisted that Sabari, Raghav and Ambi accept the settlement. The hospital too was none too keen to have Ambi around. The police had placed a bunch of forms before the doctor who did not want to fill them. He fitted Ambi with some amateur first aid and told Sabari the treatment would be too expensive for a poor driver and she must go to a government hospital. If Ambi died, the hospital would be embroiled in a police case.But he was not in a state to be released – so, Sabari told the doctor, if money is what he wanted, money is what he would get. She urged him to look after Ambi for two days, whereafter she would shift him to another hospital.Alok held Ambi’s hand and said, “Sabari and her mum live alone. She has no father, you know that. I advise we close the case. So, sign off some papers legally staking away your claim and take the measly Rs 5,000 so that they don’t face harassment from any parties later.”Sabari was upset with Alok. But he said, “I am here as your friend who has some legal knowledge. This way all of you are at peace. The doctor at that hospital too did not want to be involved... he will treat Ambi for two days at his cost but he does not want to be witness in the case." “Thank your stars, you are alive and walk away from this mess. Bas, aur kuchh nahin chahiye hamein!” This is a 3-part case study on the need for a Samaritan law. The next part of this case will examine the role of courts.Read Analysis By Sanjay OakRead Analysis By Piyush TewariRead Analysis By Vishnu SudarshanThis is a 3 part case study on the need for a Samaritan law. The next part of this case will examine the role of courts(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 08-09-2014)
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At the hospital’s casualty department, instead of rushing with instant medical help, documentation and police reporting takes precedence. There is an air of apathy, routine and disinterest everywhere. I have spent 30 years in surgery and these scenarios — as if asking, ‘Whose life is it anyway?’ — unnerve me. The answers lie not in medicine but in behavioural science. At the site of accident, there is fear, a sense of shock and disbelief, fear of the flowing blood... The scene may be ghastly and the injuries grievous. This itself drives people away from the scene. They don’t want to be a part of misery and evil in life, especially since it is not kith and kin. Hence, the reluctance to get involved.Scientific knowledge about the principles of triage to classify the victims on the basis of gravity of their injuries is lacking. There are instances when the good Samaritan act of transporting the victim has led to more damage than the accident itself. Transportation is a science and a pre-hospital transfer is not merely a physical transit but it also involves efforts to stabilise and assess a patient and inform the hospital to prepare for the victim’s arrival. Then, there is the police — they help, they interrogate, they detain, they document and they accuse. Sabari’s friend Shantam endured that as well. But the fear of unnecessary detention, involvement in documentation and endless trips to the police station and court is what deterred bystanders — that was Pahwa’s advise — keep out; albeit an expensive avoidance. It costs a life. Victim transfer involves money — bystanders also worry, if they helped, who is going to compensate them? Hospital is always a busy place. Casualty is chaotic. There is nothing casual there. At any given time, you can have — all at the same time — a case of hit and run, stabbing, poisoning, asthma attack, a heart attack, a woman in labour, a child bleeding with a gash. We need to prioritise. A gash on the forehead, bleeding profusely looks ghastly but the intra cerebral occult bleed on the next bed is more dangerous and needs priority. All this becomes a routine for us in the hospital. Routine leads to mechanical behaviour. Excess of stress and routine lead to apathy. Medico-legal is a very critical part of hospital management. It may not be apparent today but it comes alive like a ghost six months down, in a court of law. Hence the documentation, search for the relatives, struggle to identify and need to be methodical and systematic. The hospital does wish to decline but delays are inevitable for the want of protocols. Law has enforced a doctor’s duty to treat but it cannot ascertain its adherence. The relationship between clinical care and court may, at times, lead to tensions and while I agree that both sides are important, there can be no doubt that in the Casualty, it is the clinical domain that remains supreme. Victim is brought by unknown people. Family is not there, and hence, more details about the past history, ailments, any medications and allergies are not known. This leads to a cautious approach by the medical staff. Often relatives arrive after the battle is lost, and thrash everybody around. The loss of property and unjustifiable violence has become an everyday affair. It is more the expression of anger, and grief due to an unexpected tragedy but yet it scars the medical profession. A young doctor, then starts thinking… why should I receive blows and brickbats; this may explain apathy in treating the next accident victim. There is a dire need for evolving a road safety culture that includes law, police, public and hospitals. School children can be the change agents in the behaviour of adults. Citizens need to be taught a documented process on the principles of transfer of victims. Police must adopt unintimidating attitude in accidents and their processes must become foolproof and simple. They must adopt documentation on video, and take statements in camera once only. Doctors and citizens should not to be called to court more than once and Samaritans must be compensated for costs.It’s time for all of us to wake up! The Good Samaritan Act needs to be approved and passed in the Parliament. The writer is VC of DY Patil University, Navi Mumbai and an eminent paediatric surgeon. He is a prolific writer and has more than 200 scientific publications and 45 books to his credit(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 08-09-2014)
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In the past decade, over one million people have been killed in road crashes in India. Every four minutes, one person dies in a road accident somewhere in the country. While there are various reasons why road crashes occur in the first place, what is truly alarming is the number of deaths that occur due to delay in medical care. The Law Commission of India in its 201st report, ‘Emergency Medical Care to Victims of Accidents and During Emergency Medical Conditions and Women Under Labour’, notes that “50 per cent of the fatality can be averted if victims are admitted to a hospital within the first one hour”. This translates to 70,000 lives which can be saved every year with timely medical care. Ambi, the driver, could have been saved from medical complications if all stakeholders and the bystanders had brought him immediate help.While there is an urgent need for providing immediate formal medical care to victims — pre-hospital trauma care — the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its report titled ‘Pre-Hospital Trauma Care Systems’ has confirmed that “Even the most sophisticated and well equipped pre-hospital trauma care (ambulance) system can do little if bystanders fail to recognise the seriousness of a situation, call for help and provide basic care until help arrives”. This is particularly important in remote rural areas. The WHO report also states, “Bystanders are often present when an injury occurs, or they quickly reach the scene, (as also seen in the case of Sabari and Raghav). The first few minutes after a serious injury occurs represent a window of time during which potentially life-saving measures can be initiated, such as assisted breathing, applying direct pressure to a wound to reduce external bleeding, and opening an obstructed airway (recall Sabari was suffocating). The likelihood that an injured individual will live or die depends on the timeliness of these actions.” The chances of survival are highest if bystanders provide prompt assistance to the victim. In India, however, most bystanders remain indifferent, often not even alerting the police or emergency medical services (where present), due to fear of police harassment and prolonged legal formalities, as characters in the case have also been saying. A national study commissioned by SaveLIFE Foundation in 2013 to document the impediments to “bystander care” in India reported that 3 out of 4 people in India are hesitant to come forward to help injured persons on the road and the hesitation in 88 per cent of them is driven by fear of legal harassment, including intimidation, by hospitals. Consequently, incidents of inaction of bystanders, delays by police and emergency services or refusal by hospitals are often encountered in newspapers, highlighting not only the inadequacies of the existing formal systems and bystander reluctance or inhibition to help the victims.The aforementioned report by the Law Commission of India clearly notes, “As of now, in India, there is no proper legal framework to encourage citizens to report and come out to give help to the accident victims without fear of harassment.” The report by WHO also supports this view. It goes on to emphasise, “Bystanders must feel both empowered to act, and confident that they will not suffer adverse consequences, such as legal liability, as a result of aiding someone who has been injured.”Across the developed world, where emergency medical services are prompt and effective, governments have recognised the benefit of “bystander care” for injured victims and enacted the Good Samaritan law to protect such bystanders from legal troubles. In India, where emergency medical services are still very nascent, a Good Samaritan law is even more urgently required to protect and encourage bystanders to take proactive measures so that victims do not die waiting for help. Such a law must also hold all official agencies from police to hospitals accountable for the eventual fate of victim. Preservation of life is paramount and no legalities and procedures should come in the way of saving lives that can be saved. India needs a Good Samaritan law to reassure and protect supportive bystanders from meaningless consequences. The writer is the Founder and President of SaveLIFE Foundation, a non-profit organisation committed to improve road safety and emergency medical care across India(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 08-09-2014)
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The case shows that the prevailing legal and regulatory framework is not only ineffective as it fails to provide timely medical assistance to accident victims but also demonstrates that a regulatory framework with a statutory basis which has the teeth to ensure effective implementation of road safety norms and to provide medical and legal assistance to road accident victims is the need of the hour.Road accidents, besides involving high human sufferings, also impose a huge social health and economic cost on the society. The ramifications of road accidents are felt not only at an individual level but also on the economy as a whole. It is understood that in 2011, persons killed in road accidents were estimated to be 142,492 out of which 12,867 (9 per cent) were pedestrians. The Working Group on Road Accidents, Injury Prevention and Control, set up by the Planning Commission in 2000, assessed the social cost of road accidents in India at Rs 55,000 crore, which constituted about 3 per cent of the GDP of the country in 1999-2000. Estimates peg the loss caused by road accidents at 3 per cent of the GDP. These statistics present a rather harrowing picture of the state of affairs. Yet, the sad truth is that these regularly occurring road accidents attract less media attention than other less frequent but more unusual types of tragedies.It is not unusual that in road accidents or other accidents, little or no help is forthcoming from doctors, the police, the administration and other stakeholders in the civil society — as the case of Sabari and Raghav shows. This is despite several judicial pronouncements (since 1989) calling for providing timely relief and assistance to the injured (evident in Alok’s conduct and advice). It has been more than two decades since the apex court of the country held that preserving human life is a fundamental right under the Constitution and that doctors should be aware of the same. However, we are yet to see this translate into the provision of immediate medical and other assistance to the injured. The apex court (in 1996) reiterated that medical treatment cannot be denied in situations of emergency. In a more recent judgement of April 2014, the Supreme Court directed the governments to focus on the following four points or the 4 Es: Enforcement: States should effectively implement and enforce provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act.Engineering: Central and state governments must make road safety an integral part of road design and conduct regular road safety audits.Education: Governments to take measures to create awareness about road safety. Emergency: Governments to ensure that human life is not lost in road accidents owing to reasons such as lack of good Samaritans (as reflected in the statements made by the bystander); spats between police stations and administrative authorities; delay in moving victims to a hospital; poor infrastructure in hospitals or health centres or insistence on depositing large sums of money (the doctor’s conduct). Day after day, in numerous accidents (some major, others minor) timely intervention and medical assistance is usually not available, and this is coupled with major administrative issues. While the most recent judgement of the Supreme Court is a welcome measure, it is also true that there is a pressing need to overhaul the regime and create a wide regulatory framework that is not only robust but can be effectively enforced. A single statutory agency should be tasked with administering and regulating issues relating to road safety and timely assistance to the injured. Such an agency should be equipped with adequate resources and be made publicly accountable.Also, appropriate safety targets should be periodically set and national safety plans may be formulated to achieve these targets. The creation of safety advocacy groups should be actively supported. As befitting its complex nature, there should be a multi-disciplinary approach to road safety. In the ultimate analysis, a regulatory framework with a statutory basis which has the teeth to ensure effective implementation of road safety norms is the need of the hour. The writer is a partner of J. Sagar Associates(JSA), Advocates & Solicitors(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 08-09-2014)
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In India, since the kitchen is a woman’s domain traditionally, and since women have been sidelined mostly, their area of work/life is also sidelined. That explains the ignorance and indifference surrounding sanitary napkins.”Traditionally sidelined. And 99.99 per cent of our whopping population would have been so immersed in this way of ‘seeing’ or experiencing women, that her predicament is simply taken for granted. Often people, and the cultures they generate, tend to maintain the status quo in a way that does not question tradition. They have typically arrived at a way of doing things that is so ‘accepted’ that they feel no need to change. What is, is. It requires bravehearts, in the form of path breakers, reformers (of which we have had plenty) who question and then open up new perceptions and new directions for action. Where would we have been without the likes of Vidyasagar, Gandhi, Vivekananda, Mother Teresa? Yet, we still have a long way to go. There is always work to be accomplished and there will always be the need for people who will go against the grain and heroically lead the way for the rest of us to follow. Muruga is one such person. One in a billion, so to speak. Not everyone will be like him but there are important lessons to be learnt.The root of this type of unfolding path is the experience of an inner pain or conflict, something that deeply disturbs. It becomes hard to put it aside. It becomes an obsession. One cannot do anything other than address the issue at hand. The interesting thing is that we all have such moments of pain, but what do we do about it? Usually nothing, even though it simmers inside for many of us.For the few who do, it becomes an ‘epic’ journey, one that defines their every moment and one that brings with it a host of challenges or ordeals that have to be faced (the very painful rejection — albeit temporary — by his wife and mother for Muruga) and overcome. The fruits of the hero’s journey then open the way for others to follow suit and reap rich dividends. One can see the way Muruga lived with the sheep herders (“I used to hang out with shepherd boys, looking after their goat and sheep. Mother called those my collection of bad boys. I wanted to know how they controlled 200 sheep...what sounds they spoke to the cattle...I used to stay with them, eat their food. And when I would return she would wash me down with water because I was in such company”), how the seeds of his later obsession played out even early on in his life. Pain by itself and obsession by itself do not work as effectively, but when they combine, there is an admixture that is very potent. Such people have gone way beyond the group. They are no more regulated by the need to belong. Not unusually, they can even be considered as ‘mad’ (ref Muruga’s experiments with menstrual blood leading the village folk to declare him mad so that he had to leave his village). So, what is the lesson for us? To my mind, the primary question is to us as parents, educators, leaders: to what extent do we allow pain or the challenges our kids or colleagues face to surface and be spoken of? Do we not simply encourage them to push aside their challenge(s) and not engage with it? Do we communicate that challenges are bad? At what cost? We end up creating the conditions for low levels of exploration and thought. Typically, this would encourage more conformity and not wanting to stand apart from the group because it is not OK to have a challenge. It is very instructive that those with means will find a way of having their children bypass challenge and make it easier for them to succeed. Will they succeed? Unlikely. Even well known historians from the past (Arnold Toynbee, for one) have shown so clearly that the one clear impetus for growth is challenge. The less we allow ourselves to be challenged, the less we will grow. The more we make it easy for our kids, the less they will grow. Even modern day researchers like Robert Kegan have discovered that challenge is the single most important thing to ensure our ability to think and grow. The reality is that the more we allow such engagement, in a way that is supportive, the more we are building the capability for higher levels of thought and action. The writer looks after the coaching practice for the APAC region of the Centre For Creative Leadership. He is currently based in Singapore(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 25-08-2014)
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Muruganantham had no education, no wealth, no comfort, no safety, nothing, yet he is able to spin a web of wonder and bring excellent personal hygiene for women... how?’And why not? If curiosity is whetted and nurtured, it does drive innovation. But then most of us are curious about something or the other yet we are not compelled to pursue answers. Curiosity needs conviction combined with zeal or passion, to produce success. And passion is not the prerogative of the educated or well off alone! Each one of us harbours a passion sometimes openly and many times secretly. The leaders in any field whether it is the art, science, sports, politics or business invariably are there because they pursued their passion instead of letting it die within. Muruga too harboured a burning desire to create a solution, which could effectively address the female hygiene issue that he saw around him.How do you identify where your interest lies or what you are passionate about? That is the challenge that most of us face. The path of discovering your passion is dotted with unpredictability. Your varied experiences and exposure - both pleasant and unpleasant, are what eventually lead you to the right path. In a structured society or a corporate work environment, there is a huge premium placed on certainty: parents want to know what kind of a life their children would lead, schools want to be sure that they are producing kids for the right colleges, students want to know what their start salaries are going to be, Wall Street wants to know — to the second decimal — how much the company would make next quarter; investors want to know where the project is headed or they are ready to pull the plug.But wherever and whenever we have been willing to let go of this strong desire to “fix” the future, unbelievable innovations have happened. Remember Google’s 20 per cent time and well before that 3M’s 15 per cent time, when employees could work on their pet projects? 3M’s corporate brochure proclaims that allowing its employees to tinker around for part of their time has resulted in Scotch Brand Tapes, Post-it Notes, Scotchgard Fabric Protector, automobile window treatment films, multilayer optical films and silicon adhesive systems for transdermal drug delivery. Google’s experience is equally spectacular with Gmail, Google News; Google’s auto complete system and AdSense, all coming from the unstructured time. People left loose to pursue their interests often do wonders! Muruga is a standing proof of this doctrine. Unfettered thinking produces innovation even in the absence of education and capital.Muruga is likely just one of million Indians with a bee in the bonnet. If many do nothing about such bees, it is because they have been led to believe that they cannot succeed unless they arm themselves with the right education from brand name schools and the right professional network that will open doors and access to capital. I would argue that these eventually make us risk averse, as we get more and more comfortable in our cocooned world. Muruga did not have any of the necessary external tools. All he had was ideas from within his mind. He had no great expectations to meet. He turned this adversity to his advantage by giving his ideas a free rein; By taking the risks that “better off” folks find hard to take.Did the product come first or the willing consumer? Transformational innovations like Muruga‘s do not succeed unless there is a change in the mind set of people on how they see the problem. Deep-rooted habits do not die easily. And this is where the intensity of his passion carried the day. Muruga was able to make women see the folly of their unhygienic ways. He was able to get the attention of women because he was drawing their attention to their health - something nobody had done until then. He also empowered them by enabling women to produce and sell at low margins using his machine. Muruga had co-opted the women folk to lift up their lot by themselves. Muruga finally succeeded when many others who had tried their hand in the same market never made it because they never focused on changing the poor women’s thinking. True leadership is all about changing the way people think. The writer is CEO of AnuPartha, a global executive search firm focused on transformational leaders. Follow her @anupartha(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 25-08-2014)
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Suneil Rana read the interview with Muruganantham for the 12th time. Each time he shook his head in wonder. He said to Jagat Gavin, “You know what grabs me again and again is this: how can a guy with no world view, with no education, with no money, with no worldly interaction, etc., achieve so much? What powers him?"Suneil, Jagat and Suneil’s wife, Visaka were researching for a book on leadership behaviours. They had before them an interview with Muruganantham (aka Muruga), and the freedom in his words intrigued them. What helped him see what nobody else had, was their question.Jagat: People like us seek ‘business opportunity’. Muruga was looking for a solution to what he thought was wrong and unhygienic. Recall what he said: he always looked for solutions when things were boring or wrong.Suneil: Yaar, but how do you explain his achievement in the face of no education, or an MBA? His father was a yarn weaver, so that explains his familiarity with yarn and cotton. But this does not become a competitive advantage! Then what explains his finding the need gap as a mere need gap and not an opportunity?Jagat: Muruga did not find a need gap. He found neglect and he chose to address it. Simple. That’s how he is. Suneil: It fascinates me that sitting in a small village he was able to visualise for the world! I was browsing some blogs where they talk about Muruga. A young person has said she too had thought of making a difference via women’s hygiene, but felt ‘awkward’. Another said he lacked motivation; yet another blamed the pressure of the Indian education system — the CBSE exams; someone else blamed unsafe society, somebody said, my parents would never allow me to experiment...!Jagat: Precisely na! There were no boundaries in his life. Nor did he seek to structure it. All he did consciously was watch movies.Visaka: The other contrast is the city bred has opportunity, maybe a set of wealthy parents, even excellent education, an idea of entrepreneurship and they take the family money and work with an idea. Maybe they have the confidence, the courage, the determination, all that. Father is doing well, is working in a responsible position, moves in healthy social circles.... All these are ingredients that promote entrepreneurship. And the young man decides to invest in a burger franchise. Or make a better burger. Or a bigger burger even...Luckily I did not get educated, that is what helps me think freely. Muruga studied at the local municipal school. My school had no walls... All classrooms were in one long verandah... above was the sky. We lived in the natural world. And therefore, for us, the sky was the limit of anything... Does the root of Muruganantham’s success lie here? The moment you study in a classroom, you have a limitation with your imagination. I don’t suffer from that... and have not ever felt limited by thought since my childhood, because I always saw the sky, the moon, the birds, the butterflies even in the middle of my class...Visaka: So, when a butterfly sat on his book, it was not natural for him to shoo it away. Suneil: Maybe he wrote around it... Have you written around a butterfly? But Muruga had a world view that was unique. Whenever you miss nature, you are a common man, ordinary human. Whenever you connect with nature, you have tremendous power.... (laughs). So, was he differentiating between city and village?Whether city or village, the mind should connect with nature. That is how the mind becomes expanded. If you become a gold medalist, you are only a lab rat. If you see, the 19th century was full of innovations and innovators. The 20th became speculative and narrow minded, why? Because the 20th century was more mechanised and technology dependant. The 21st is even worse. Narrow minded, studying in a classroom, thinking only what is in a textbook and studying to pass board exams...not enjoying science,but living in fear of the future. If you think about the future too much, you will not be creative. But all those who score great grades, who get a PhD, they worry about becoming (making that degree prove them) great. The moment you get educated, you begin to worry about your future. Fear is put out with security and money.Suneil: Only those who have no fear of the future can do the extraordinary, they can break tradition, norms; and they can act when a need arises. They don’t seek the support of the present or the past. They don’t need traditionto protect them. They have a free mind. Or their mind is unfettered, one sees. Muruga describes his schooling: There was no limitation, no boundary, no gate. No door. Nothing was locked. Everything was open and available. You had to be disciplined only during lessons; at other times, the sky was the limit. So, even the mind grew like that. Because there was no limitation, no barrier...!Visaka: So, his schooling — that is all the formal education he had — was boundary-less. He did not build walls that directed movement or thought. He was not looking over his shoulder wondering if his thoughts were appreciated, relevant... neither was he reckless and doing things for a lark. Suneil: Therefore, again and again one asks, why are there no other Murugananthams? Or how come he who had not gone beyond Coimbatore, how was he able to think about a vast, vast population? Jagat: It is the way he thought. It is his research, his methodology; his daring to examine a well-researched product, rip it apart and say, “...white substance, made of cotton — oh, my God, that guy is just using a penny value of raw material — inside they are selling for pounds, dollars. Why not make a local sanitary pad for my wife?” And he went on to understand the essential process of menstruation!Suneil: I recall way back when I worked for a detergent company in sales, all of us were males and none of us had ever used the detergent or washed a shirt ever to know the usage situation! ....We were never shy about giving the wrong answer. We continuously learnt. If you got more marks, I didn’t think I got less. I just thought you got better marks. Our teachers also did not ridicule us. I never felt shy to ask the ‘why’ and my teacher also explained patiently. I used to ask, why the butterfly has so many colours. Who is colouring the butterflies?’ She never said, ‘Don’t ask stupid questions’. Read analysis by Anu Parthasarthy and Kaushik Gopal break-page-break Our world was never about who came first in class, how somebody performed, etc. ...we all studied, and we all ran home screaming mindlessly. We were fun loving kids. No pressure upon me to study and become Doctor, Engineer, not even from parents...Jagat: Was it because his parents could not afford to dream? Or they did not think they had to design Muruga’s dreams? Those days, no, even today, people of my village simply lived. Just lived and worked. Livelihood was for food, a small place to live. My parents used to watch plenty of MGR movies and take me also. Our outlook was, life should have a happiness. And we found happiness from movies!”Jagat: I see what he is saying. We seek satisfaction and joy from work. For us, happiness is in accomplishing. His world separated fun and work. Fun was fantasy. Work was work — to live!Suneil: Another thing he said was this wanting to be like another is also a limitation we put on ourself. We want to become. As a result, we do not allow our potential to express, instead we superimpose another ideal or idol on our mind. This ‘originality’ theory is his guiding force. But fabulous lode star!Muruganantham is an original piece, not a copy of anybody. Why do people not want to be like themselves? People are given idols to copy and be like. No university across the world, teaches this! I have travelled to Harvard, JFK school, MIT and everywhere I used to ask them, have you found a second person like you anywhere ? How many of you know your uniqueness?Muruganantham was always proud of his uniqueness. As a child he would stand before the mirror and would say, ‘Hello, Muruganantham! Happy to meet you!’ I never compared myself with Rajini (kanth) or Kamal Hassan...the beauty is they also cannot compare with anybody! Is there not a reason why each one is unique? Why are you trying to be like the fellow next to you?... then, who will be like you?!”Visaka: All we have to explain his glory, are these thoughts. Does then the difference lie in our perceptions? Muruga’s view of the world was all of nature; his classroom or home were mere superimpositions on that. Whereas we grow up seeing the world through the perception of a cameraman — on TV, on our mobile screen, on our laptops... Therefore, because of all this wanting to be like someone or become someone, are we missing our own inner uniqueness in the process? Does that explain?Jagat: I think, the way he looks at the world is different and there lies all answers. The world his mind projected was not a world that he wanted to grab from. It was a world that he was charmed by. It promoted peace. It was not competitive or ruthless. He did not want to compete with anything, because he did not want to become something, he did not worry about what will happen tomorrow. Muruga’s father, a weaver, died in a road accident when Muruga was barely 12. His mother gradually sold all personal effects and finally she became a farm worker for a wage of Rs 5 a day. But in all this, Muruga’s view of his mother is captivating. He reminds us that she had also been brought up on Tamil movies! So, she thought that like the Tamil heroine she can make her son and daughters into lawyers and doctors out of her Rs 5 per day wages! This is what movies do to you. By then I was 13-14, I realised that what she is attempting is impossible. Visaka: There would have been no point telling her that, as she was mesmerised by the grit of Sowcar Janaki and K.R. Vijaya and likely tucked her sari tighter in determination.But every day she would drink water and go to sleep and I would say what nonsense, how many days can she survive on water! So, I stopped my schooling and became a workshop helper, in a roadside ‘petty kadai’ somewhere... My job was to fetch beedis for my maaliks.. I was 14 years old. Sometimes I also had to rescue my maalik, who would fall on the roadside after consuming arrack; somebody would come and call me and I would support him on my shoulder to his house. One day, the maalik vomitted and I was asked to wash him... This kind of living did not make sense to me. So, I decided to look for something else... Jagat: But it did prepare him for the future. What I see is that he did what was needed, for today has to be lived. Tomorrow would take care of itself. That freedom in the mind is what lets the mind fly. Dream the impossible for greater good... . Visaka: So, where are we getting? How does this explain his abilities? Muruga’s mother thought he disliked studying, hence he dropped out of school. Even today she thinks so and tells the media reporters, ‘See, with small education what he has done, if he had studied ... then?’ No food, no money, nothing.... what will we do with empty ambition!’ (Muruga laughs). But Mother also thought Muruga was in bad company. I used to hang out with shepherd boys, looking after their goat and sheep. Mother called those my collection of bad boys. I wanted to know how they controlled 200 sheep...what sounds they spoke to the cattle...I used to stay with them, eat their food. And when I would return she would wash me down with water because I was in such company. Suneil: This is my take: He experienced everything that he encountered without inhibition. Curious. Inquisitive. Carried no baggage. Happiness is his underlying emotion. He learnt as he lived. Visaka: That’s it. He observed, he chose to know. His mind was open to knowing. He could have chosen to remain on the periphery; but he wanted to know. This is what lay behind his venturing into female hygiene and not think of it as ‘Oh no! Not my matter!’Whereas it is common for a man to say some very powerful male thing like, ‘I don’t know how to buy a sari’, and enact a silly helplessness. This is why India has not one organisation that manufactures kitchen accessories like Pampered Chef does, like Crate & Barrel, like King Arthur Flour, like Progressive, like Tupperware. These are organisations that understand the needs of cooks and kitchens, hence of women. In India, since the kitchen is a woman’s domain traditionally, and since women have been sidelined mostly, their area of work/ life is also sidelined. That explains the ignorance and indifference (and silly helplessness) surrounding sanitary napkins. Jagat: Makes sense.... India’s GDP is linked to sanitary napkins. Provide personal hygiene to women and they will all come out and work. But you charge Rs 200 per month for hygiene. So, these women use rags and sit in a dark corner at home. That is why I am now working with school girls, since 23 per cent of girls drop out of school once they start menstruating. I am teaching young school girls to make sanitary napkins, I will empower them!Jagat: This is true leadership, one that empowers the larger community! Think: we have health, we have wealth, we have education, we have comfort, we have safety, yet we manufacture personal hygiene — a necessity – for only the elite rich. Like fire extinguishers or toilet cleaners. Muruganantham had no education, no wealth, no comfort, no safety, nothing, yet he is able to spin a web of wonder and bring excellent personal hygiene for women... how? Read analysis by Anu Parthasarthy and Kaushik Gopal(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 25-08-2014)
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Jagat Gavin was amazed. his eyes followed the man in the brown checkered shirt walking around the huge convention centre, his eyes watching, observing. Everything about this man was nondescript. Arunachalam Muruganantham could have been anybody on any street in any city or village of India and you would not have given him a second glance. Yet, here was the man who had given talks at Harvard and MIT, wowing audiences with his invention — a very low-cost sanitary napkin to bring hygiene into the lifestyle of the rural woman — which was breathtaking more because it made everyone, everywhere in the world ask the same question: Dammit, how come we did not think of this? What was it about this man? Suneil Rana, Gavin’s friend and co-associate at the research school, said, “There is something about him and it is not in his actions. It is in his perception....”Jagat, Suneil and Visaka — Suneil’s wife — were researching for a book on leadership behaviour. What made for leadership? Was it about leading or the leader? What was it that accounted for some leaders being able to make huge wins for mankind? They had sought to look at it from the angle of accident, design and heredity but none explained Muruganantham’s case. So, was there a fourth explanation? The clinical verdict so far was that study and discipline helped develop skills and mindset to engineer change that was needed for better communities, better workplaces, better teams too. So, there were leaders who worked for the betterment of victims of human trafficking, child abuse, etc. Jagat: Fair, but this man defies all protoypes. In one sweep, he has lifted mankind several notches by providing not just an affordable napkin but by shifting the world perception: he has now forced them to know about female hygiene issues, face it, than cringe in ignorance. No more is the world flat....!Presently, there stood on the stage the man himself: Arunachalam Muruganantham. He was going to tell a 3,300-strong audience of suits and ties the story of his invention — of how he came to develop an affordable sanitary napkin for the rural woman who had only used rags, straw or mud. All because she needed that money to buy food for the family. Muruga (as he was known to friends) had all along used the help of an interpreter who would translate his Tamil. But at the last talk he gave at a B-school, the drama in his words was lost in translation. The audience had been unmoved. Today, he was facing an even larger audience. He recognised faces like Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy... after the last talk Muruga had decided he would speak without an interpreter. And he was not going to let his convenors know... Muruga was dressed in spartan clothes. He was in cotton trousers and a plain shirt, which he had not even tucked in. Jagat smiled. He wrote: Mind over matter...Muruga always spoke extempore, from the heart, depending on the audience mix. He had said once: ‘When you tell me the audience is IIT grads, I know how to talk to them. Why do I have to prepare? I know why I did what I did and what I am going to do.... I know all that! What is there to prepare?” When the microphone was pinned to his collar, Muruga told his audience, “for the next 23 minutes, I am going to speak wrong English...’ A titter ran through the audience. And he began, “So, I tried to do a small good thing for my wife. It makes me stand here....” He spoke non-stop, much to the chagrin of his stunned conveners who were distressed that Muruga, the Tamilian with a limited English vocabulary and no grammar, had no written speech. Muruga’s English was sweet even if grammatically damaged. He wrapped his colloquial Tamil thoughts in his survival English, in an accent that was a challenge, and the idiom that he delivered was devastatingly endearing. Such as: “On that occasion, I found my wife carrying something like this. (He demonstrates...) “What is that?” I asked. My wife replied, “None of your business.” The audience was in love with this man. Oh, no, not because of some false city sense of charitable disposition to the villager, but because in his simplicity, lay God. Suddenly, every soul was awakened. Muruga was not talking kindness or love or brotherhood....none of the stuff that causes professionals to shudder. He was simply cutting the chaff of management jargon, what Victor Hugo would have called, ‘the language of misery’, and saying it as it was.In some places the audience laughed, in some places they applauded... when he finished, Muruga unclipped his mike, placed it on the table and left the stage with a ‘Bye’!As the audience broke for tea, Visaka tried to get figures for rural per capita income, and scoffed angrily at the figure of $1,219 (Rs 80,000). “This is such a misleading figure!”Jagat: Yes, it includes total population in the denominator that includes the unemployed too. And if we still get Rs 80,000, then that reflects the super rich.Suneil: So, what makes Muruga a winner? He is a school dropout-turned-welder. How is he at Harvard and the IITs and IIMs? Read Analysis By: Anuradha Parthasarathy & Kaushik Gopal break-page-breakMuruga was a welder. He made windows and grills. He hated monotony and lack of imagination. He had seen that all window grills were boringly geometric in pattern. So, a bored Muruga stared at the kolam patterns on the street across his workshop, and twisted his iron bars to deliver peacocks and dancing birds.Jagat: This may well be the software in his inner self that permits him to chase the unusual and the out of the box with ease. Set patterns are not for him. This is part of his wiring.Innovative? Resolution? I did not know these words, said Muruga. Always I do something and then I find it has a name in English. That was how, if something was monotonous, if something needed to change, he sought to change it. That was his nature. That was how when one day he saw his wife Shanti carry a rag with her, covertly, he instantly gleaned what she was up to; and even if she had sweetly told him ‘not your business’, Muruga would one day be in the thick of such a business. His mind began to work towards resolving this.Suneil: Look at his life plan, it is interesting. From dealing with iron and windows how did he move to sanitary hygiene? Both windows and hygiene are protection givers, one may say.Visaka: But sanitary napkins is an area that does not concern him at all. Technically. Even today, men do not know the facts about women’s hygiene needs. Whatever ads we have for sanitary napkins are so convoluted and unnecessarily brave, attempting thereby to liberate the woman, an undercurrent of ignorance and denial is seen when ads and brands look at the ‘period’ as bondage, as binding, as burden. Menstruation is a part of being female. Managing it well and not wishing it away is freedom. Liberation is not attained by naming the napkin ‘Liberation’! But by naming the napkin with liberation words or secretive words (Stayfree, Freedom, Whisper) you have already made the woman feel she is a victim of shame who needs freeing! But a period is not a problem. It is the attitude to it, since times immemorial, largely owing to a male-gaze-dominant world that felt hindered by menstruation, that lent it the aura of disgusting and shameful. Yes, it has attendant difficulties like cramps, pain, exhaustion. But that has nothing to do with ‘disgusting’. That was how she was declared untouchable...! (Jagat and Suneil heard her intently as she continued...)The modern world thinks that by changing how we think about the monthly period, the woman will start enjoying it...The very idea causes one to shudder. Yet, that is what leads to choking tag lines like: Have a happy period!Jagat: Did Muruganantham think women were unhappy? That will be interesting to know...Visaka: Women don’t feel unhappy or disgusted only because, in a fertile phase of 40 years roughly, they endure this some 400 times. But women who do not have the means to manage it are unhappy with the suffering caused by infections that are unbearable. Yet, it was shameful to think about it, talk about it and one was considered uncouth if one talked about it. Even women refer to their cycle by constructs like Chums, Curse, Aunty Mary, Ladybug.... fun but covert. Of course, the politeness is necessary and appreciated, but when seen in the backdrop of a world where the menstrual cycle is considered dirty and stomach churning... one sees that the fertility of a woman is also shunned, hidden, never spoken of. Male gaze leads to dominance leads to ignorance leads to sub-optimality.Suneil: I pulled out this data from an ACNielsen report to the Indian government. The numbers speak loudly and I wonder what happens with reports like these. It says that of the 355 million menstruating women in India, only 12 per cent use sanitary napkins! In contrast, look at another report that says that in a country of 1.2 billion, the number of Brand X cola drinkers is not enough; considering how high its potential is, Brand X is going to invest $5.5 million by 2020.Visaka: While 88 per cent women resort to methods that are unhygienic, extrapolate and you get the health bill cost. Factor in the gender bias in Indian homes and you get neglect of female healthcare. Extrapolate again and you have reasonable numbers for female deaths. Poor menstrual hygiene leads to fungal infections, and infections of the reproductive and urinary tracts, which can lead to cervical cancer. So, ‘Save the Girl Child’ includes meeting her hygiene needs!Jagat: How did Muruganantham, a man from a really small village, choose to think of women’s hygiene, a topic that does not go with beer and peanuts?Muruga went beyond thought to action. Researching sanitary napkins sitting in a small hamlet village, Papanaicken Pudur, and yet producing meaningful understanding to deliver what he did, is stunning. Given the secrecy and embarrassment surrounding the monthly cycle, Muruga first examined the product itself, then its contents, then slaved over a prototype, then approached college students to sample the product, annoyed his wife who left him, then worse followed. He told them to return the used napkins so he could study the product delivery. And the day his mother saw the horrific pile of napkins in the backyard, she likely covered her mouth lest her shock be heard by neighbours, but the lady gathered her two saris and left home.Visaka: I have heard that the villagers too got annoyed and claiming he was possessed by evil spirits — not unusual for a village — they asked him to leave the village too.Suneil: What we need to see is, this is the kind of pressure he dealt with. Would anyone who is ostracised by his home, his family, etc., be capable of pursuing his goal? We are all too fat with our comfort that is why we can’t see the courage in his efforts.What makes it unbelievable is that Muruganantham began experimenting with it on his self so as to come to grips with the essential nature of this product. How can one get that intense? Now, this is a fine product developer. It can be seen that he was not in it for commerce, but he was seeking to fill a need gap that was neglected because sanitary napkins that peddled for Rs 80 for a pack of 7 was a foolish expenditure for the village woman who could make that Rs 80 go a long, long way for the family.What is sad is not that the woman sacrificed. What is sad is that sanitary hygiene, when it was first developed, was done so with commerce and profits in view. When variants came, it grew even more pathetic as the billowing middle class grew into an attractive market segment. Then came sprightly looking girls wanting to play tennis and being worried that their taffeta and cambric clothes would get stained.Improved variants now let her wear whites fearlessly; elsewhere, a similar upper class anxiety with dandruff gave birth to a meaningless shampoo that let you wear blacks fearlessly. And such dull goals occupied product innovation departments.Meanwhile the sanitary napkin grew sophisticated and slimmer. Fantastic innovative preoccupation while prices remained unattainable! Presently, they were creating commercials that got mothers and girls to mouth the P word with a pout. Muruganantham, like a true Gandhian, decided to clean the toilet himself, in a manner of speaking. He fitted himself with animal blood in a hip pouch and discovered the horror of female fertility.Jagat: And that is what helped him understand the problem from scratch. Has any detergent salesperson asked to see the clothes after a wash and been able to assess a poor wash? Have they wondered why despite their fantastic vibrating molecules and educated enzymes women still give the clothes a scrub with their hands? Muruganantham may not have known of the details of women’s health issues related to poor hygiene, but he knew that a subtle coping strategy was evolving around and among women, so that they stayed isolated for the three days, did not work then to save energy in an already dissipated state, stayed indoors to ward off any environmental infection. But this also meant the little girl stopped schooling when she attained puberty. So, Muruganantham said he would now also empower the adolescent girl so that she grew up with solutions for hygiene and not strategies. This would change her whole world view. Jagat: We have copious statistics on women mortality, health issues, everything. But it took a man from a village to change the fate of women from victim to winner! To be continued...Read Analysis By: Anuradha Parthasarathy & Kaushik Gopal(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 11-08-2014)
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