The latest video from a posh noida condominium and the casual cruelty of the privileged

The latest video from a posh noida condominium and the casual cruelty of the privileged

The everyday acts of violence in lifts, parking lots and corridors of gated enclaves indicate a moral and civic blindness. Ending it calls for a conversation that goes beyond the temporary outrage generated by a video.

The CCTV footage from Cleo County, a gated community in Noida, that shows a resident assaulting a domestic worker is shocking. It is also, unfortunately, an increasingly routine occurrence in metropolitan India. In the video, which was shared across social media on December 27, the resident can be seen dragging a young woman from a lift, even as the latter tries to resist, clinging desperately to the door. Earlier this year, also in Noida, Shrikant Tyagi and Bhavya Roy became symbols of elite entitlement when they were caught on camera assaulting a woman co-resident and security guards, respectively, in their posh condominiums. And in August, Varun Nath slapped, abused and threatened to kill a lift operator and security guard in his Gurgaon housing complex.

A common thread runs through these cases: The casual cruelty of the privileged stands exposed because of a video — either from a CCTV or through one surreptitiously taken on a mobile device. Public outrage and media attention mean that the police file cases and the seemingly interminable process of justice begins. But what of the incidents that aren’t recorded or shared? The roots of the impunity — fed by inequalities of class and caste, region and religion, gender and access to justice — that allows one human being to strip another of her dignity in the workplace, remains unaddressed. There are at least two systemic shortcomings that need to be examined.

The first is a question of the law and order machinery. Are the thana, PCR van and beat constable — the most immediate points of access in distress — somewhere the less privileged can go to complain about their employers’ excesses? The police must assure citizens that there is understanding and no threat of further violence or intimidation when they are approached. Given the difference in power and status between those who live and those who work in gated communities, the police must ensure that the might of the former will not be used to crush the latter. The second issue is more pervasive but far more difficult to address. Fraternity is a foundational idea of the Indian Constitution precisely because BR Ambedkar and many others saw “graded inequality” and the violence that upheld it as something that needed to change for India to march into modernity. But as can be seen in video after video, education, wealth and urban life do not make people treat fellow citizens, especially those who are more vulnerable, with respect and reciprocity. The everyday acts of violence in lifts, parking lots and corridors of gated enclaves indicate a moral and civic blindness. Ending it calls for a conversation that goes beyond the temporary outrage generated by a video.