Happiness, beyond measure

People are jumping on to the Gross National Happiness bandwagon, in an attempt to capture something that remains elusive 

What is common to Bhutan, Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Madhya Pradesh? All of them have a ministry/department for happiness. Bhutan is talked about the most, with the idea of GNH (Gross National Happiness) presented as some kind of alternative to GDP (gross domestic product). GNH is built into Bhutan’s constitution, in Article 9, on Principles of State Policy. What is invariably quoted is Article 9.2: “The State shall strive to promote those conditions that will enable the pursuit of Gross National Happiness.” However, this follows Article 9.1: “The State shall endeavour to apply the Principles of State Policy set out in this Article to ensure a good quality of life for the people of Bhutan in a progressive and prosperous country that is committed to peace and amity in the world.”
Operationally, what does this mean? Those who mention Bhutan talk about GNHI (Gross National Happiness Index), administered by the Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research. GNHI is based on four pillars (political, economic, cultural and environmental) and nine domains (which can be skipped for present purposes). There were surveys in 2010 and 2015 to determine how Bhutan performed on GNHI. Hence, along a happiness/unhappiness continuum, progress could be measured and one had an aggregate measure that was an alternative or supplement to GDP, based on subjective responses to questionnaires that were then aggregated. To state the obvious, Bhutan has a population of around 7,50,000.
But I don’t think the alternative or supplementary summary measure is the point. The point is the Planning Commission and Committee of Secretaries being subsumed in the Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC). In other words, feedback received from GNHI surveys is factored into government policies and public expenditure priorities, reflected in central and local body plans. More than the aggregate measure, if I have understood the idea right, this suggests decentralised planning to me. Ascertain the needs of gram panchayats/urban local bodies. Use those local plans to aggregate and move up to a block level, district level and national plan. If we get too fixated on the alternative to the GDP idea, we lost sight of this process, the operational and much more important part.
After a lot of sarcastic comments and dark humour in 2013, I haven’t heard much about Venezuela’s vice ministry of supreme social happiness. Perhaps it just vanished, because of chaos and general uncertainty. The initial idea seems to have been to converge anti-poverty programmes directed at disabled, homeless, poor and old-age pensioners. Unlike Bhutan, you don’t ask people what their priorities are. Given the ideology of the government, you know what people want, or should want. At best, you synergise across schemes. This also illustrates why discussions on happiness that mention both Bhutan and Venezuela in the same breath are misleading.
I don’t think it is fair to place UAE in the same bracket either. In 2016, UAE announced a new ministry (and minister of state) for happiness. It may be early days, but so far, all this ministry seems to have done is to train officers from federal and local government to become “chief happiness and positivity officers”. I am not sure the UN General Assembly Resolution of July 19, 2011 was a very good idea: “(1) Invites Member States to pursue the elaboration of additional measures that better capture the importance of the pursuit of happiness and well-being in development with a view to guiding their public policies; (2) Invites those Member States that have taken initiatives to develop new indicators, and other initiatives, to share information thereon with the Secretary-General as a contribution to the United Nations development agenda, including the Millennium Development Goals”.
Irrespective of what is done to public policy formulation, people are jumping on to the bandwagon of measuring and pushing something that is, at best, elusive. The UN’s World Happiness Report, an annual feature since 2012, is based on diverse indicators across GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, freedom to make choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption (trust). Measure a country’s distance from the perfect dystopia and you have a rank and a score. In 2016, India had a rank of 118 out of 150 countries.
If citizens are happier in a certain country, presumably people would want to migrate there, given a choice. In 2016, the top three countries were Denmark, Switzerland and Iceland and both Nepal and Bangladesh have higher ranks than India. It is worth checking out the number of Indian immigrants to these five countries. Among India’s states, Madhya Pradesh was the first one to start a happiness department in 2016. It is early days there too. At the moment, the focus is on volunteers training people to positively impact the lives of others. This is thus an attempt to bring about behavioural changes in people, not behavioural changes within government.
Such disparity across three countries and a state should remind you of the clichéd blind men and the elephant and perhaps of John Godfrey Saxe’s poem too. Most people will remember how the poem starts. “It was six men of Indostan..” And this is how it ends: “So, oft in theologic wars/ The disputants, I ween/ Rail on in utter ignorance/ Of what each other mean/ And prate about an Elephant/ Not one of them has seen!” For happiness too, theology is a good expression, because that’s what the fetish about measurement has reduced it too. The means of measurement have become more important than the end.

 

GDP has shortcomings but finding an alternative indicator is a challenge

Taking the measure

GDP has shortcomings but finding an alternative indicator is a challenge.

The word “gross” has more than one meaning and every possible meaning isn’t palatable. There are people who are engrossed in GDP, and its growth, on a daily basis. But just after the Union budget, many more people are interested in GDP which is the annual value of goods and services produced, as opposed to gross national income, which adds net factor income from abroad. GDP is a term widely used and also abused. I mean the concept, not quality of data. How can GDP measure welfare?
It doesn’t take into account distribution. Income, the foundation of GDP, is at best a means to an end. We should measure indicators that are ends — health, education, quality of environment. In a county like India, where there is “black” income, what sanctity does the official GDP have?
The father of national income measurement is Simon Kuznets, awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1971. He worked with the National Bureau of Economic Research and was responsible for the first measurement of US national income. This was for 1929-32 and there was a 273-page report (1934) to Congress. It had a section titled “Uses and Abuses of National Income Measurements”. If one reads the report, one realises every criticism “discovered” afresh today was anticipated by Kuznets in 1934.
Here are quotes from the report: “The estimates submitted in the present study define income in such a way as to cover primarily only efforts whose results appear on the market place of our economy. A student of social affairs who is interested in the total productivity of the nation, including those efforts which, like housewives’ services, do not appear on the market, can therefore use our measures only with some qualifications. Secondly, the present study’s measures of national income, like all such studies, estimate the value of commodities and direct services at their market price. But market valuation of commodities and especially of direct services depends upon the personal distribution of income within the nation… The welfare of a nation can, therefore, scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income as defined above.”
Or, “In determining which efforts of individuals may or may not be classified as services for the purpose of including their value in the national income total, the estimator must perforce follow the overt expression of social opinion as embodied in the nation’s legal code. That many illegal acts are of some benefit to one group or another and are being paid for, is no proof that these acts constitute a service from the social point of view… The investigator, unless he wishes to impose his own scale of values, cannot, therefore, treat earnings from such illegal pursuits as burglary, illicit drug traffic, bootlegging, etc., as bona fide parts of the national income.”

What does one make of the GDP critique? Given that there has to be a market (and resultant price) where goods and services are valued, one can improve the quality of data, but not GDP as a concept. Alternatively, one can think of indicators that supplement whatever GDP tells us.
There can be indicators like those in Millennium Development Goals or Sustainable Development Goals. Indicators aren’t the same as a summary or aggregate measure. Indicators can’t be reduced to a summary measure unless there are weights and an aggregation formula.
UNDP’s HDI (based on three heads of health, education, GDP) may be widely useful. However, equal weights attached to the three heads of HDI are subjective and arbitrary and have no rationale other than simplicity. (In traditional GDP measurement, prices are weights and therefore, there is no subjectivity.) It becomes messier when one has something like the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, resulting in what is known as the Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi Report (2009). “The Commission’s aim has been to identify the limits of GDP as an indicator of economic performance and social progress, including the problems with its measurement; to consider what additional information might be required for the production of more relevant indicators of social progress; to assess the feasibility of alternative measurement tools, and to discuss how to present the statistical information in an appropriate way.”
The GDP critique was the easy part. Other than the aggregation problem, this report brought in subjective indicators on well-being. “Measures of both objective and subjective well-being provide key information about people’s quality of life. Statistical offices should incorporate questions to capture people’s life evaluations, hedonic experiences and priorities in their own survey. While assessing quality of life requires a plurality of indicators, there are strong demands to develop a single summary measure. Some of these measures are already being used, such as average levels of life-satisfaction for a country, or composite indices that aggregate averages across objective domains, such as the HDI. Others could be implemented if national statistical systems made the necessary investment to provide the data required for their computation.” Paraphrased, we don’t quite know what an alternative summary measure (for GDP) might be. Let CSO figure it out

 

The shrinking Plan

Technology has made the idea of decentralised planning tangible

I have quoted from this book in the past, but there is no harm in doing so again. This quote is from Alexander Campbell’s The Heart of India, published abroad in 1958. The book is “banned” in India. The word “ban” is often used loosely. This book has never been published or printed in India. The ban (Customs notification No. 49, dated March 11, 1959) is on imports into the country. It is an extremely patronising book, though that should hardly be a reason for a ban. There is a section about a meeting with Vaidya Sharma of the ministry of planning. “He (Vaidya Sharma) put away the housing development papers and talked again about the Five-Year Plan. ‘We have now entered the period of the second Plan. The first Plan built up our food resources; the second Plan will lay the foundations for the rapid creation of heavy industry. Delhi, as the capital of India, will play a big part, and we are getting ready to shoulder the burden. We are going to build a big central stationery depot, with a special railway-siding of its own. There will be no fewer than 12 halls, each covering 2,000 square feet. They will be storage halls’, and, said Sharma triumphantly, ‘we calculate that the depot will be capable of an annual turnover of 1,400 tons of official forms, forms required for carrying out the commitments of the second Five-Year Plan!’”

Richard Mahapatra is the Managing Editor and publisher of Down to Earth. In the current issue (February 16-28 2017), he writes, “Many old-timers, gathered around a Murphy Richards transistor in a library, would react to the approval of the five-year plan, as a grave voice of the newsreader would inform about allocations. In colleges, the economics professors would read out the new priorities to students and often, shyly, hint at lucrative academic opportunities and new subjects for applying for scholarships. Not going into the details of whether planned development did any good or harm to India, the five-year plans were always good experiences.”

I will not get into the merits/demerits of planned development, not only in terms of historical context, but also its continued relevance/irrelevance. (In view of the Campbell quote, perhaps I should have said reverence/irreverence.) As students, we were reverently taught, and studied, plan models. I don’t know if this reflects my jaundiced view, but the charm of plan models probably died out with the Fourth Plan (1969-74), at best, the Fifth (1974-78). Once rolling plans (1978-80) got going, plan models gathered moss. Incidentally, the number of equations in any plan model was almost entirely driven by the computing power one could rustle up.

In our student days, we rarely read plan documents and we certainly didn’t read annual reports of the Planning Commission. Let me now quote from the 1977-78 Annual Report of the Planning Commission, during the rolling plan era: “The Commission has suggested two new developments in the evolution of the country’s planning methodology, viz. (a) the adoption of the rolling plan system and (b) the preparation of comprehensive area development plans at the block level. Year-to-year targets will be set for sectoral outlays and output for major sectors within the Five Year Plan; performance against these targets will be reviewed annually… There is no basis for the apprehensions expressed that the introduction of a Rolling Plan system would mean the abandonment of long-term objectives, reducing the commitment of resources for development, and freeing the implementing agencies from any accountability for non-achievement of targets. The modifications proposed will not mean either the abandonment of perspective planning or the replacement of the discipline of a five-year framework by ad hoc annual decision-making. A new 15-year perspective plan will be prepared for charting the longer-term course of development of the economy as a whole. The Perspective Plan would provide the framework for investment decisions in long-gestation projects for which a five-year horizon is inadequate, and for planning for land use, water resources, oil and mineral development and manpower.”
I have refrained from quoting from the decentralised planning sections. In hindsight, both ideas seem prescient and both have a rationale, though Vaidya Sharma wouldn’t have approved. Decentralised planning lacks the raw appeal that centralised mathematical models possess. Even now, students are fascinated by the Oskar Lange kind of idea of a central planning board completely replicating the market through a tatonnement (trial and error) process. Note that decentralised planning received lip service since the First Plan (1951-56) — District Development Councils were formed, the Planning Commission formulated guidelines for district planning in 1969. A Manual for Integrated District Planning was prepared by the Planning Commission in 2009. The last quote is from that manual: “From the late sixties to the mid-eighties, the trend was towards greater centralisation of administration. Due to the absence of concerted political and administrative support, panchayats had by the late sixties been superseded in most states. The formulation of Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), implemented mainly through line departments led to the virtual collapse of the district planning process. Though there were several efforts to stem the tide, (Dantwala Committee, G.V.K. Rao Committee), these were largely unsuccessful.”
The supercomputers of the 1970s were primitive. Forget those, in its heydey of modelling, the Planning Commission didn’t have access even to mainframes. But that remained the aspiration and decentralised planning seemed to replace it in every district with what are now called tablets.

 

UKPCS MAINS result is out 11 out of 16 in first batch,best of luck for interview.

UKPCS MAINS result is out
11 out of 16 in first batch,best of luck for interview.
Samveg ias congratulates theirs student for their hardwork ,discipline ,dediction due to which they got selected in ukpsc mains exam.
we were almost sure for their result by checking their answer during answer writing practice.unfortunately some good student has also not been selected.we feel sorry for them,but they have good chance in next pcs exam
ANSHVEY.
ATIYA
ARADHANA
MANISHA
DRISHTHI
RAHUL
VINOD
MANAS
PAWAN
SHALIEN
PANKAJ

RBI’s monetary policy committee must improve its communication

The monetary policy committee should better appreciate the fallout from its inconsistent action-guidance mix across reviews

India’s infant monetary policy committee (MPC) has already made history: In just three bi-monthly reviews beginning October, it has acted upon three different inflation assessments. At this pace, perhaps one shouldn’t be surprised if the panel decides to shift to a tightening bias at the next meeting in April!

The MPC’s decision to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.25% on 8 February was unanimous. However, the minutes of the meeting reveal all the members didn’t bless the unexpected shift in stance to neutral from accommodative, though it was the majority view. To be sure, four of the six members mentioned the need to shift the stance; only one of the three external members agreed with them.
India’s MPC’s framework has a leg up compared with other such panels. This is because the meeting minutes contain comments by each of the six members. However, the MPC is still a work in progress as it attempts to find the right balance between the policy action, justification for that action and guidance, while being clear, consistent and credible within and across reviews. The latest minutes offer some useful insights but also raise some uncomfortable questions. Communication remains a key problem area behind the disconnect between market expectations and the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) shifting thought process.
The MPC has offered three different inflation assessments in as many reviews: dovish (October, when it eased and continued with the accommodative stance); uncertain/concerned (December, repo rate on hold but accommodative stance maintained; and unambiguously hawkish (February, on hold but shifted stance to neutral from accommodative).
The October rate cut was a close call as markets were struggling to decipher the new policy response function—there was a new governor, a new MPC, and, as some had flagged, a softer interpretation of the inflation target. The on-hold rate decisions in December and February were both unexpected by a wide margin. Not a single living entity anywhere in the world expected a shift in the policy stance in February.
Why have markets and the MPC been on persistently different wavelengths? It is certainly possible that those of us sitting in the trenches are clueless and have been misreading the MPC over its last three meetings. But there is more, and the committee itself is responsible for the miscommunication.
Governor Urjit Patel owes an explanation for the conspicuously missing focus on the 4% inflation target in his comments in the October minutes. This finds clear mention in the minutes for December and February. Perhaps the exclusion was because of the glaring inconsistency of the decision to cut rates despite the RBI raising the inflation forecast for FY18.
It was that repo-rate cut and the dovish tone of the statement that accompanied it that prompted financial markets to expect more easing after reassessing the monetary response function of the new institutional regime. It now turns out that that was a case of either an egregious miscommunication, or the MPC subsequently decided to become a born-again hawk. It is unclear if the latter has anything to do with questions about the RBI’s credibility with respect to demonetization.
The latest MPC minutes are also perplexing in some ways though the renewed commitment to the 4% target is welcome. First, the two members who did not favour changing the stance strangely chose not to (or were not allowed—we don’t know) share their reason(s). It is odd that the MPC concluded there was no useful information in explaining these differences.
Second, the lone external member (Ravindra Dholakia) who favoured the shift in stance is perhaps the most dovish MPC member. He was exceptionally upbeat about inflation, including the core component, according to the October minutes: “I do not see major risk to inflation if the output gap closes fast.”
Third, there is a misguided celebratory tone about the Centre’s budget and fiscal dynamics. While the budget showed a welcome restraint and had more positives than negatives, it is perhaps only in India that the government can miss the fiscal deficit target twice in three years but still be complimented for fiscal discipline!
Fourth, a related point, there is little concern about the deteriorating consolidated (Centre + states) fiscal picture. This is likely to remain under pressure because of worsening state finances. What matters for monetary policy is the consolidated fiscal position, not just the Centre’s fiscal dynamics. Only one member (Dholakia) mentioned the issue of state finances but the outlook was conspicuously absent.
Fifth, deputy governor Viral Acharya’s (first MPC meeting) insightful comments clarified the rate decision was a tough one for him and heavily influenced by external factors. This was because of the difficulty in resolving the trade-off between output gap and the persistent nature of core inflation. However, the services-led persistence in core inflation despite the manufacturing-driven low capacity utilization isn’t new, and it certainly didn’t prevent the MPC from cutting rates in October. Additionally, external concerns (eg. the fallout from Trump’s policies) existed in December as well when the accommodative stance was reiterated.

Finally, there is a missing focus on the adverse implications for monetary policy from the elusive investment recovery contributing to lowering the potential output while fiscal policy boosts consumption. This will affect how quickly the output gap closes, which in turn will affect the ability to achieve the ambitious inflation target of 4%.

The MPC must improve its communication by better appreciating the fallout from its inconsistent action-guidance mix across reviews. As a humble beginning, the central bank should explain why it has stopped uploading, beginning October, the recording and transcripts of the post-policy call with researchers. It has still not offered any explanation for this retrograde step. The RBI should walk its talk on transparency and accountability.

Battling superbugs with Big Data India, sitting at the cusp of a digital revolution, is well placed to address the antibiotic resistance problem

Antibiotics that once cured ailments across the spectrum are now turning into a potential source of prolonged illness, disability and death. The world is transitioning to a post-antibiotic era where common infections and minor injuries will begin to kill, thanks to increasing antibiotic resistance (ABR). In 2015, such resistance was identified as the cause for about 23,000 deaths annually in the US and about 25,000 such deaths in Europe. While accurate data on the incidence of antibiotic resistance in India is unavailable, the highest number of deaths caused by resistant pathogens passed on to newly born babies from mothers or the environment—approximately 58,000—was in our region.

Though ABR in certain cases occurs through the natural evolution of resistance in bacterial pathogens, the rising consumption of antibiotics is a major contributor. Topping this, the New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) enzyme, which makes bacteria resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics, is now present globally. This indicates free movement of ABR across boundaries, with serious consequences. This is nowhere as stark as in India. Our large population is often blamed for the widespread dissemination of a higher number of resistant pathogens, commonly called superbugs. However, it is the interplay of domestic factors such as a weak public health system, cheap antibiotics available in the market, and their unregulated use, that has created ideal conditions for superbugs.

Prescription of antibiotics for a variety of diarrhoeal and respiratory infections despite their limited curative potential has exacerbated the situation. Poor regulation of pharmacies and licensing out several pharmacies to a single pharmacist introduces a large number of unqualified personnel into the supply chain. New virtual marketplaces have made the entire drug distribution process an opportunity for unchecked financial gains by irresponsible actors. The lack of awareness among patients regarding the appropriate use of antibiotics has led to self-medication and non-adherence to the prescribed course of antibiotics, further intensifying the problem.
The dramatic increase in prevalence of superbugs and the dearth of new antibiotics in the market is a warning signal for India. The absence of a good statistical model to show the relationship between antibiotic consumption and associated resistance makes it difficult to frame usage guidelines for these antibiotics. This in large measure explains the absence of any great success even post the Chennai declaration of 2012. To meet the obligations of this declaration, the National Programme on Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance was launched under the 12th Five-year Plan. A core objective was the generation of quality data from 30 laboratories on antimicrobial resistance of pathogens posing a grave public health risk. Though meant to be completed within 2017, only 10 labs have so far been brought within the data-gathering exercise.
Tackling the superbug problem requires massive data collection and analysis. Well-designed studies and indicator surveys providing general insight into the situation are critical to begin with. While studies can provide a clearer picture of the prescribed doses of antibiotics and their pattern of use (including the why, when, where, and for what relating to antibiotic consumption), indicator surveys can attempt to identify the health outcomes emerging from the use of such antibiotics for different ailments. Frequently repeated surveys, with their range expanded to track geographic and demographic representative data, are a policy imperative if India wants to build comprehensive indicators of ABR.
But tracking the data is not in itself of great use unless the health departments of the Central and state governments work in coordination with nodal bodies in the technology space to develop an information-sharing grid. The grid should also have smart data-mining solutions built into it. The virtuous loop of integration of data from various public and privately operated hospitals, pharmacies, and drug procurement services across the country, data analytics to track the correlation between antibiotic consumption and induced drug resistance, and robust information sharing with the public and health authorities is the right approach moving forward. Molecular biologists should be consulted for their insights on the genetic and molecular mechanisms responsible for such resistance.
ABR can be handled successfully once efforts are directed to establish efficient data-mining techniques and a team of specialists is trained to translate this research into useful clinical practice. The database created can certainly help in unravelling the hidden relations between antibiotic use and its associated resistance. Access to this online database can help physicians track ABR patterns; predict health outcomes; and prescribe drugs suitable for patient needs. It will not only help in improving clinical outcomes but also facilitate the deployment of computational and statistical models to accurately predict epidemics. This can aid local health bodies in issuing warnings and controlling the outbreak of infection. The scope of research can be expanded further with new hospitals, clinics and pharmacies joining the network. Big Data and analytics promise a significant step towards personalized medicine. India, sitting at the cusp of a digital revolution, is well placed to integrate such solutions with public health management and address the ABR problem.

Can the government solve all our problems?

When it comes to problems that are caused by individual action in a private space, the role of the government as a solution provider is very minimal 

Violence against women is rising. Very few individuals pay income tax. Alcoholism seems to affect more and more people. Problems around us are on the increase. The big question is, who is primarily responsible for solving these problems?

Thanks to India’s socialist beginnings, the belief that the government is responsible for taking care of all aspects of its citizens’ lives is strongly embedded in almost every Indian’s mind. So when it comes to solving the problems in our society, from keeping garbage off our roads to mitigating the problem of child trafficking, we assume that the government alone is responsible for solving these problems.
All the problems in our society are not alike. When it comes to a problem like terrorism, there is no doubt the government is best equipped to solve the problem. When it comes to mitigating the problem of sexual molestation of children, can the government be accused of inaction?

The problems that we encounter can be plotted along two continuums. One continuum is about problems that occur in one’s personal space to problems that occur in public places.

The other continuum is about problems that happen because of individual action to those problems that happen because of group action. Based on this construct, the problems around us can be classified as those occurring because of individual action in private spaces (example: marital infidelity), individual action in public places (example: open defecation), group action in a personal space (example: honour killing), and group action in public places (example: spread of communicable diseases)

The state has a significant role to play in solving problems that occur in public places, and involve a group of people. But when it comes to problems like sexual violence, not filing tax returns, obesity, etc., that are caused by individual action in a private space, the role of the government as a solution provider is very minimal.

But due to our inherent tendency to lean on the government for everything, we expect the state to solve these problems too.

Alcoholism is a problem that occurs predominantly because of an individual’s action. Certain aspects of the problem—purchasing the product, and, to some extent, the consumption of the product—might happen in public places. But without realizing that alcoholism is predominantly an individual’s problem, governments are trying to solve the problem.

Governments do what they can. They prohibit or control the sale and consumption of liquor in public places. Across the world, what this has done is to push the purchase and consumption of alcohol into private spaces where the enforcement of law is difficult.
Managing several other personal problems has become complicated because the action in question is harmless and at times is considered good in the short term. For example, one cannot find fault with someone eating a chocolate. The action gets the “problem” tag only when the person overeats chocolate every day and combines this action with inaction—not doing enough physical exercise.
Do we expect the government to pass a legislation that prescribes the amount of chocolates one can eat every day or do we expect the government to enforce fines on people who do not exercise every day?
The truth is that the government cannot do much to solve problems caused by the individual in his personal space. The only person who can do anything about solving these type of problems is the individual himself.
How does one develop solutions to these problems?
First, we need to understand the contours of the problem well. Since the problem occurs in one’s personal space, it is not easy to study such behaviour. Studies show that in the cases of sexual exploitation of children, in more than 90% of the cases, the perpetrator is a close relative of the child. In the absence of an effective mechanism to go deep into the recesses of the problem and understand why a close relative could engage in such ignoble acts, we do what comes to us easily—ignore the problem.

Only when we understand why he does what he does can we develop interventions to effectively protect our children. To develop effective solutions, we should also be able to understand the deep emotional wounds the crime creates in the victim.

Developments in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and behavioural economics are now helping us to have a better understanding of the problems that occur due to individual action in personal spaces.
Many of the problems occur because of deficiencies and biases in the human brain. For example, the human brain has great difficulty in foreseeing the consequences of one’s action in the future, more so if the present action is seen as insignificant to the gravity of the problem. Before a person throws a plastic bag into a gutter, he cannot visualize how this act could contribute to global warming.

Another surprising facet about human behaviour is that anonymity of any kind reduces the sense of personal accountability and civic responsibility for one’s actions. In the assurance of an anonymous context, the Lucifer in all of us does surface.

Understanding these and other vagaries of the human brain reminds us that managing an individual’s action in a personal space is not an easy task.
Don’t expect much help from government on this front.