This disregard is all-pervasive. Right from the individual level, when one does not bother to wear a helmet while riding a two-wheeler, to the organisational level, when there is poor regard towards environment, health and safety (EHS) norms, to the government level, where adequate deterrence is not built into the system to make safety of the citizenry a priority. Take these cases.
Our ‘jugaad’ culture of solving problems, using limited resources, has made us overlook safety. So, it doesn’t unsettle us when there are not enough checks and balances to ensure the safety of the products we consume. Laws that bring in those checks and balances are either inadequate, not easy to pass or flouted.
For instance, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the central body responsible for setting standards related to quality assurance of goods, systems and services in India, had 21,901 quality standards in force, but only around 361 product standards that required mandatory certification, as per data from its