Be a Thinking Person!!!!!

A senior academician recently posted a debate on face book questioning the relevance of reading newspapers and magazines by students towards doing well in their jobs. Apparently, this post was originated from the fact that students descent the idea of reading newspaper and watching news. The response to the post by others was even more bizarre as they tended to conclude that having knowledge of current affairs has no relation to one’s actual performance on the job. Being a recruitment psychologist, I felt it necessary to write on this for the large good of the student community and also for the benefit of recruiters.

Cognition as defined by Wikipedia is a group of mental processes that includes attention, memory, producing and understanding language, learning, reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. When organizations hunt for a potential employee, among all attributes cognitive development of the candidate is of very great significance as this is the start point from which flows all other attributes be it effectiveness, responsibility or adaptability. One of the primary objectives of education is to develop the ability of students to grasp, reason and decide and the fact that there is a debate on where it is important to read newspapers goes to prove that this triad is miserably missing.

The present educational system of our country entirely focuses on one half of the definition of cognition. Students are forced to read subject matter with attention, memorize and reproduce in the exams and all those who do these well get fantastic scores in their boards. The latter part of the definition encompassing learning, reasoning, problem solving and decision making are comfortable ignored and it is these attributes which are essential to be successful on job. Take an example of IIT entrance. Thousands of students take up this exam and only a handful get a decent score while most score above 80% in their board exams. Here lies the difference. The entrance examination of IIT is based on application of knowledge which requires true learning of concepts, ability to reason, problem solving and decision making.

You may wonder, what is then the relevance of reading newspapers? True cognitive development should lead to inquisitiveness and as one reaches higher classes the need to find reasons for various phenomena should increase. To site an example, ideally at least all science students should know why ceiling fans rotate in an anticlockwise direction always. You will be surprised to know that several present day electrical engineers are unable to answer this question. Another example, most students use Scooty / Motor cycle these days. Ask them how it works and you will be shocked to see them wondering because they never questioned and reasoned as they simple taken it for granted. Recently an engineering student called on me for counseling to join Defence Services. During the discussion, I asked him for his views on the govt. proposal to start engineering courses through distances learning and I was not so surprised to see him clueless. He did not even know that such a proposal exists. Is it not relevant for him? Should he not have a reasoned view on such issues concerning his own domain? If I was his recruiter I would reject him out rightly, how much ever his scores in engineering is, simply because he has no inquisitiveness to know what is happening around him and hence no logical reasoning, problem identification / solving and decision making. Such candidates when in their job roles will be blissfully unaware of what is happening even in their immediate environment, leave aside the extended environment, and will behave like buffalos on the street.

Ideally a candidate should not only have quest for information but also the ability to separate grain from the chaff, identify the problem clearly, logically reason the cause and effect and arrive at his own decision/views. This ability can best be tested by a recruiter by asking the candidate his views on current issues. Hence, it is very important for students to not only read newspapers and watch news on television but think, rationalize and form their own views. This over a period will become a habit and while on job roles, such candidates will proactively keep scanning the environment and continuously form reasoned views and take / guide decisions. Such employees are every boss’s delight always!!!! So, be a thinking person.  

Soldiers and Policemen - Stocks of the Same Society

The recent Delhi gang rape has brought to question the appalling behavior of policemen in our country. While confronting this reality most senior police officers ascribe it to poor working conditions and degraded values of the society itself from where they pick their stocks. As a service officer with over 25 years of experience, I am compelled to contrast soldiers and policemen and conclude that the arguments put forth by the police are completely unfounded.

The anxiety level of a soldier is incomparable to any other uniformed profession. The working condition of soldiers is torturous to say the least. Apart from the grave risks that they face from the enemy, the treacherous climatic conditions of mountains, jungles and the seas take a big toll. Soldiers live separated from their families for most part of their service career with a visit back home only once in 6 months. With their meager salaries they struggle to maintain their family and educate their children. Most of the time the atrocities bestowed on their families back home goes unreported. Incidents like rape, murder, forceful takeover of land by greedy family members and neighbors are so common and rampant. Yet soldiers evoke reverence and respect in the society at large and they are not from Mars and are part of the same society from where the police draw their stocks. Obviously then, there are other systemic causes for such contrast in their behaviors.  

Most soldiers and policemen are recruited after 12th standard and there are no great differences in the recruitment procedure too. In both cases, it is based on a written test followed by physical test and could be that the physical standards desired in the military may be a notch higher than the police. There are no other tests in the military to assess the attitude and behavioral orientations of a potential recruit to say that the military draws a better lot. It is therefore, not the degraded values of the society which is to be blamed as most police officers tend to say, instead there are several subtle differences that misses the eye, which must be carefully considered.

Firstly, both organizations have a public image and it is an empirically proved fact that among other things, individuals seek congruence between their personal and the prospective organization’s values. Thus, one could say that both organizations attract individuals based on their public image. The most commonly known value of the Police force is ‘Power’ whereas that of the military is ‘Service’. Thus, the lot opting for the military and police are entirely different in terms of their value orientations.  Secondly, it is common knowledge that selection into police requires financial investments whereas in the military it is not so. Thus, someone who aspires for ‘power’, can afford to invest and is confident of reaping back the investment will never opt for military service. On the other hand a person with some sense of national service and who can’t afford to pay a bribe will find the military a better option. Therefore, the police argument that the society is degraded does not hold much water. For that matter, every society comprises of good and bad and in the absence of any scientific method of weeding out undesirable elements at the recruitment stage the image or core values of the organization assumes greater importance. Thirdly, not all soldiers are saints but as stated earlier, in the absence of any scientific method of weeding out undesirable element at the entry stage, it is expected that some unscrupulous elements will creep in. These elements at some stage of their career do raise their fangs but the implementation of discipline through immediate trial and conviction sets an example for the rest, which is grossly missing in the police force. Policemen as they stand today, exercise ‘power’ without accountability and we know ‘power corrupts’, more so when the initiation itself is through corrupt means.     

To change the way police in our country behaves, we need no rocket science or help from any foreign country. All we need is to learn a few lessons from our own military. Firstly, the police needs to revisit their recruitment process to eliminate corruption because corrupt breed corruption. It may also be wise to have a thorough psychometric analysis of each candidate before selecting him/her. Secondly, there is an urgent need to have a strong code of conduct for policemen and any violation must be dealt with ruthlessly and to do this they need clean leadership, particularly at the middle level. In the military there is no lateral entry for Junior Commissioned Officers. They all rise from the ranks which ensure that only the best become JCOs and thus the quality of middle level leadership is ensured whereas, in the police a candidate can directly join as Sub-inspector. Thus, there is no check on the quality of mid level leadership. Once these systemic changes are implemented, the image of the police will gradually change and it will start attracting better lot from the society.  

The police force need to look inwards rather than blaming all and sundry for their own follies.

Growing Moral Sickness in the Society

We often hear comments that Indian media has become bold and pervasive. While this may be true, one major observation is often understated, i.e. the media is overwhelmingly focusing on crime reporting. If we pickup any newspaper of the 80s and compare it with today, this point will emerge out glaringly. Today’s newspapers start and end with reports of innumerable episodes of crime and the vast majority would be against women, which is a reflection of growing moral sickness in our society. Indians were traditionally known for their moral and ethical conduct. However, this image has taken a severe beating in the recent years. Since the Delhi gang rape has forced the society to introspect, I thought it prudent to shed some light on the causes of this sickness.

Values are the fundamental propelling force behind overt and covert behavior of human beings and collective values of individuals give shape to societal values. Values provide the sense of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ which guide human behavior. Today, if we are witnessing growing incidents of crime and violence, without ambiguity, the root cause is the ‘value system’ of individuals and that of the society. The fact is, values take shape in the formative years of one’s life and it gets inculcated through social interactions within and outside the family. Since children in their formative years spend more time at home, undoubtedly the rot starts within the family. This brings to fore the conduct of elders in the family and society.

Collapse of Joint Family System. The joint family system provided the basis for transfer of moral values from one generation to the next. Even though there was erosion caused due to factors such as exposure to other cultures and traditions, the erosion was much gradual because of the strong familial sanctions against immoral behavior. However, strong desire for freedom and struggle for survival has forced people to move out of the joint families and thus, the young ones have lost connect with the older generation. This has also led to apathy and crime against senior citizens.

Consumerism and Double Income Families. Exposure to cultures of affluent societies of the west and Indian urban lifestyle has forced almost every Indian to chase material wealth. This has led both Partners to work and in many cases work for long hours to earn that extra bit. While such families may be materially well off, they lose sight of the young ones. There is hardly any time for moral upbringing of the children, while the entire focus is on giving the best material comfort to them. As children grow up, most families put enormous pressure on them to become capable of earning wealth for better life ahead and thus the children start believing this to be the true purpose of life. Consumerism fuels this fire even more, as success is measured in terms of material wealth, how much ever ill gotten it may be.

Educational System. Indian educational system produced one of the best scientists of the yesteryears and yet the system was known for inculcating value based education and acted as reinforcement to the values inculcated at home by elders. Post independence, the Indian polity and administration took away this advantage by systematically ruining the traditional educational system and mindlessly commercializing education to the extent that ‘value based education’ has now remained only in the admission brochures of educational institutions. The performance of schools and students are measured based on academic results and this has taken away every scope for moral and physical development. Every student lives with a singular dream of making it to the IITs/NITs/Medical colleges.  Parents go out of their way to get that extra money, whichever way, and push the children even more into the well of darkness.

Failures & Frustration. It is obvious that all aspirants cannot end up in IIT/NIT. While some will succeed, most will fail. Parents who have been enterprising in their venture of earning wealth may push their children back into race through the capitation route and it is the left out, failed children of our society who have never been exposed to morality, neither at home nor at school, whose parents have also let them down by not being successful in earning wealth, will fight for material success in ways other than moral. Of these, a few tough ones fight back, some weak hearted ones end themselves and many morally bankrupt become criminals. Thus, Indians are in a never ending race for material wealth as this has come to be the only ‘Dharma’ of our society.

In sum, while we may endlessly on how the situation can be reversed, I am quite skeptical. Perhaps, the only way we may reverse this is by strengthening the educational system with strong moral value content which is easier said than done, given the commercial environment that we all live in. At the same time, elders need spiritual orientation and introspection, which again is Utopian given the fact that even spiritualism has been commercialized to a large extent.  

Is There a Case for Capital Punishment for Rapists?

Gender bias in our society is beyond contest and it starts right at homes, not necessarily in poor but also in the rich and mighty. While we know how and why it happens, it is important to consider the psychological origin and fall out of this bias. Humans are social animals or in other words animals that live within the social norms. For all those who watch animal kingdom would know that the male species often enforce their dominance by subjugating the female counterparts and the best display of subjugation is having sex - consensual or otherwise. This is nature and no one has taught this to the animals. Thus, the behavior of man towards women is not really strange, as he is part of the animal kingdom. However, it is the ‘social norms’ which compel him to behave more soberly than animals in Jungle or otherwise. India being a patriarchal society has always preached inferior status for women and thus the social norm itself is at odds with women’s cause. Obviously enough, man is behaving like true animal as the shackles of society is either missing or weak.

A simple fact is, if mankind had a choice they would enjoy behaving this way in the open because that is their true nature. In the absence of strong social norms, the other alternative could be fear of law which can hold them back. However, over the years, flawed investigation and prosecution have sent a loud and clear message that one can easily get away in this country. The fact that every 22 minutes a woman is raped and the conviction rate is just about 0.1% says it all. Therefore, the social norms on the one hand are weak and the law has failed the women miserably - no wonder the monstrous behavior is getting encouraged.

While one may shoo away any examples from the Arab world, it is important to understand the underlying belief behind such harsh punishments executed in public. While the urge for dominance over women may be involuntary, the method of gratifying this urge is always voluntary and voluntary behaviors can only be modified using Operant or Instrumental conditioning. In this type of learning an individual's behavior is modified by its consequences. Depending upon the consequences; the behavior may change in form, frequency, or strength. Obviously so, the consequences of rape or any crime in the Arab world, are very harsh and this deterrent causes operant conditioning of voluntary behavior. The law has in place ‘life imprisonment’ for rape in our country. But how many have so far been convicted? We may have death penalty for rape but unless the conviction rate goes up and justice is meted out quickly, the desired conditioning effect on the society will not take place and it may instead act as positive reinforcement of such behavior and the crime rate will go up.

Therefore, the case is not as much in favor of death penalty Vs life sentence, it is actually about fast trial and high conviction rate. Firstly, such offence must be made non bailable and the police must crack down and file charge sheet on a time bound manner. Since behavior of police is also a big question mark and needs conditioning by consequences, a stringent code of conduct must be put in place and all erring cops must be discharged from service. The judiciary must also be held accountable. There must be fast track courts and a time frame for delivering justice. Finally, in such cases severe punishments, not necessarily death, must be meted out more liberally so as to have conditioning effect on the society at large.

Whose Country is it Anyway?

Since the media these days majorly focuses on large scale corruption brought to fore by activists like Arvind Kejriwal and others, we seem to have completely forgotten the small timers altogether. Here is a true tale of modern India. 

 

Recently, I travelled with my son to Mumbai and the distance from my home to the airport is about 22 Kms. The unreasonable taxi fares forced me to take the public transport system after decades. I also wanted my son to experience the public utilities, which he was hardly exposed to. We boarded the star bus from our residence. We had to get off half way and take another bus. I presented Rs 30/- and the conductor gave us a ticket of Rs 18/- and returned Rs. 10 and in case of any checking, he told us to say we boarded from a place which was a few kilometers ahead of our actual boarding point. All this happened in a jiffy and as a matter of routine. It took me some time to realize what had actually happened – I effectively paid Rs 20/- instead of Rs 22 and the conductor transferred Rs. 18/- to the state and pocketed Rs. 2/-. 

 

On realizing, I asked him to return Rs. 2/- and he looked absolutely flabbergasted. He then started hauling at me for not giving him exact change. According to him, I must be grateful as he was helping me instead of asking me to get off the bus for not tendering exact change. I was dismayed while he went ahead regardless. As I watched the others, I realized that this is a normal practice and almost all regular commuters do this. They know what to say when surprise checks are held and as a matter of routine the public and the conductor are cheating the state. 

 

My son, a class 12^th student, was perplexed and asked me to explain. While I explained to him what was going on, I also said that these are aberrations and not the norm. However, this happened once again in our second leg and this time we pushed the conductor on the back foot, gave him exact change and demanded correct tickets. Again two days later, when we returned back, we faced similar situation on both the legs but we were armed to corner the conductors. While we may have come clean, my son concluded that this is not an aberration but a norm and I was left with a bad taste for I had to get into altercation with a bus conductor to be fair and honest, while most go on regardless. 

 

I wonder, whose country is it anyway?  I am glad my son qualified in the interview and the medicals to join the merchant navy. Hopefully, he will never have to go through such embarrassments to be a honest citizen in this country. Even better, I wish he never comes back to this country ever.

 

An epilogue

 

I was in Delhi recently and took a bus from University to Hazrat Nizammudin railway station. The conductor was a hansom young man from Haryana with a very pleasing personality which forced me to draw a comparison between the conductors of Nagpur and Delhi. I presented Rs 100/- for a ticket of Rs 15/- and offered to give change of Rs 5/- in addition, to make mathematics a little easier. He declined and gave me the ticket and Rs 50/- with Rs 35/- as balance written in the reverse of the ticket. I was all along concious not to forget the balance and as I reached my destination, I presented the ticket back to him and he promptly returned Rs 35/- and I thought he returned the original ticket too. I was in a hurry to alight and once down and comfortable, I saw the ticket carefully to realize that he handed over another ticket of Rs 5/- along with the balance money of Rs 35/-. I was shocked but could do nothing as the bus vanished into the heavy morning traffic of Delhi.

 

This is India!!!!!