Plastic Tears- Femina

<html> <head> <title>Untitled Document</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> <img src=photo.asp?ID=6962136 width="150" height="210" align="left">April 15 -30 Issue In each of us rests the responsibility for preserving our world What would you do if you were travelling home in a reasonably crowded train, and woke from a catnap to see the women around you buying lovely ripe, yellow bananas which were being handed out in thin, transparent plastic bags? Decide you dont want bananas, and go back to sleep? Decide you want bananas and buy them? Or fail to see the bananas and only see the plastic bags that were being handed out and would end up dotting the city roads and rubbish bins? Or would you think, when nobody cares, why should I? After all, the poor old woman who is selling the bananas is making an honest living despite her age, and the women buying the fruit are going home at the end of a long day... I got into a situation where I first harangued the old woman for handing out the plastic bags, and then asked the women who had accepted them to please return them. Two or three did. The rest might have done so too... Then, one woman decided to ask me if I had the authority to demand that the plastic bags be returned. And if I had an identity card that gave me the right to reprimand the fruit seller for the bags... Dont start any trouble, she added, if the people of her caste get together, they can finish you, and there is no policeman in the compartment to save us, today... Her statement sparked off instant trouble. A few voices demanded my I-card, and booed me down when I said I was only a concerned citizen who wanted to help preserve the city that nurtured us all. Plastic bags were harmful, I said, and each of us had to prevent their use. You have no I-card, you have no authority to talk to us or tell us the law, the voices chorused. By then, I was quite angry too, and told them that they themselves were literate and should have been aware enough to teach an unlettered women not to use plastic bags, instead of arguing with me. Excuse me! a young girl said, I am a student, and I know that bags of above 10 microns can be used, so dont tell us. I tried to explain that regardless of microns, which were finally an eyewash solution, plastic bags that would not be reused were much more harmful than the fancy shopping bags that at least took a few weeks to end up in the dust bin. I was shouted down. She's an environmentalist type, the first voice said, and grabbing the plastic bags the others were on the point of returning, she handed them back to the women. It is your right to use them, she said, dont let this woman take away your right. One lone voice tried to muck in and say that what I was saying was correct, but the babble of voices demanded to know why I did not go shop to shop telling dealers not to stock and give out the bags, why I did not tell the government to ban production, why, why, why... You think that by returning 10 bags, you will change the environment? a woman asked me while I readied to step off. No, I countered, but if each one of you do not accept them, those who produce them will not find takers, and the habit will die out. What use is such talk when the entire nation is full of instances of law breaking? Why should we care about small things like plastic bags? she demanded as she got off. I walked down the length of the platform feeling truly defeated. The arguments, the awareness of ones rights, the defences against someone trying to impose on ones sense of freedom - all of these were values that were hard won for each of us women in that compartment... yet, it had all amounted to nothing. The old woman would carry her load of plastic bags the next day too, the women would take them without question... And who knows, if I find myself in the same situation again, I might decide it is good counsel to keep my eyes - and mouth - tightly shut.Editor, Sathya Saran <A HREF="articleshow.asp?artid=5149388">Archives</A> </body> </html>