Human persons are made insecure by violence, wars, poverty, disease, and natural calamities.
An inalienable right of every person, such as the ‘human security,’ has come under threat. This is starkly disclosed by the ongoing pandemic, but sadly only a few have acknowledged it. On the face of the earth today vulnerability, fragility and deep sense of apprehension loom large beneath the dark clouds of deadly virus sky. Fears, uncertainty, anxiety about the next hour, emotional and psychological discomfort have all been gripping the weak creature that is here to stay but only for a few moments! No one willingly desires to succumb to the jaws of death, but death has disclosed its mighty power to devour within seconds, the insecure human being. One keeps wondering, as the pandemic is ravaging humans relentlessly, whether the human pilgrimage on earth is worth the salt at all! If at the end of the day death is the only reality awaiting humans, why on earth people with flesh and blood, will and intellect come into being? Human insecurity, at every step of the way, is the only air one breathes and the food one consumes on this pilgrimage of life.
Human Right
‘Human security,’ according to the understanding of Amartya Sen, is concerned about what primarily do people want when sudden deprivations that strike society, such as insecurities and uncertainties arising from the threat of human survival or the safety of the daily life. Unannounced spread of diseases or the pandemic often subject people to penury and economic tragedies – reality we all have observed, if not participated in during these dark days. Human persons are made insecure by violence, wars, poverty, disease, and natural calamities. How fragile or vulnerable humans are is tested when any of these maladies affect them. One cannot leave to nature to heal, support and fill the void within the human heart when insecurity overpowers them due to adverse events, deficient means at hand or any sort of mishaps appearing at their door. Corrupt and discriminatory socio-economic and political structures are constantly threatening human security which all desire. Therefore, eminent economists such as Amartya Sen hold the view that human security is larger than national security.
Love, friendship, understanding and all kind of moral and psychological elements essentially provide human security, without any doubt. However, what is often underplayed is the human security provided by many faceted external factors, as simple as, money in ones hands to attend to physical needs. Therefore, human security tends to be misconstrued and misinterpreted by spiritualists who coat it with scriptural platitudes and place it in opposition to insecurity considered as a divine virtue to be emulated. Religious teachings at times opt for passivity in the face of human need, offering the assurance of salvation from the earthly predicaments. No one can relegate human security to the last bench as long as the human stays human.
Greed and Apathy
“Man is a wolf to man,” stated philosopher Hobbes. How true! Human greed devours the neighbour and his or her goods; aggressive competitive strategies employed in various human activities scare every hour a contenting existence; ever increasing desire to hoard for establishing one’s own kingdom in a human society destabilizes people who are fending for their living by a dint of hard sweat. Human security, thus, is threatened by human persons posing as opposites to one another in the ring of life, one never realizing that being human implies that all humans are in need of security.
In a Republic such as ours, policy paralysis on the government level in different areas of economy, health and education, and their lopsided priorities have let down citizens, pushing them to death knell. The ulterior motives of the political rulers delayed vaccination of millions who were on the verge of being succumbed to the second wave of the pandemic. What an insecurity of uncertainty was created for a while; and the insecurity still being instilled in the hearts of millions. Also, sky-rocketing unemployment is increasingly bringing human security to a deleting point bringing desperation on the faces of the young. It is utterly disgraceful to see wrangling among political leaders for positions instead of being involved in procuring human security by way of food, clothing, shelter, health, employment and education. Many human rights activists in our country who sacrifice their life for providing human security to the displaced are criminalized falsely by the national regimes. They are languishing in the prisons today. Government of a Republic is elected by the graciousness of its citizens so that every man and woman rightfully possesses human security. National security, though essential, one must know that it is the human security of every human person that must be the priority.
Human security had been brutally harmed and destroyed by totalitarian regimes not only in the past but also today in a country like Myanmar where the democratically elected legitimate government is destabilized by the powerful junta. The security which the citizens enjoyed for a while provided by the government of the people there is erased. What we observe on the entire bodies of the people of Myanmar is their deepest longing for security as their demonstrations against the army go on. Refugee crisis in various countries is another glaring example of humans living each day without security for even an hour. Rohinghyas in our neighbourhood; are they not human beings like anyone else who need to live on human security? Why is it that governments of the world pass by ‘on the other side’?
“No One Is Saved Alone”
Televised speeches by national leaders, promising golden days, or doling out gifts during calamities, do not secure human life with what is essential to sustain one’s self. Occasional gifts only bring greater insecurity. Placing the national resources in the hands of the economically marginalized could be a way of providing human security to millions, as economic experts understand. However, unwilling governments keep passing by on the other side, and make themselves secure in every way possible by looking at their own coffers and on their belly.
Society is a family of servants. All are servants of each other providing human security with all that belongs to it. One does not live for oneself, or die for oneself. Being existentially related to each other, all live and die for one another. Bringing human security is the responsibility of every citizen. Thomas Merton rightly says: “... when a man is lost in the wheels of a social machine he is no longer aware of human needs as a matter of personal responsibility. One can escape from men by plunging into the midst of a crowd!” This rings true in the Indian society disturbed by politics of egotist absorption.
Listen to Pope Francis:
True, a worldwide tragedy like the Covid-19 pandemic momentarily revived the sense that we are a global community, all in the same boat, where one person’s problems are the problems of all. Once more we realized that no one is saved alone; we can only be saved together. . .the storm has exposed our vulnerability… revealing once more the ineluctable and blessed awareness that we are part of one another, that we are brothers and sisters of one another. (Fratelli Tutti, 32)
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