Given the disturbed ambience all the time across the land, its dimensions being diverse in different regions for varied reasons, one is prompted to remark that the greatest gap lies between the country’s bludgeoning population as quantity and goings on in daily life of people as quality. In short, one cannot be faulted to further point out the perceptible mismatch between these two sides of the nation in respect of its quantity and quality as it were. First and foremost are: a) The rapidly growing number of social activists of the undesirable kind, the self-appointed leaders with their captive followers (call them chelas or sycophants as you will) and b) Their openly uncivil conduct leaving the people at large feeling totally helpless. Nobody has any clue on how to arrest this cancerous deterioration in the nation’s social ambience, even as many socially-conscious voluntary groups are pitching in waging a losing battle.

One wishes that the theory and practice of keeping a check on unwanted variation in quality of manufactured products in the industry were also beneficial in arresting the quality of a plethora of components of life of people. But, the roots and branches of life’s quality tree as it were, are too complex and unmanageable.

The columns of dailies are replete with reports of happenings related to clearly perceptible changes, read decline, in the quality of various factors affecting people’s life. In this context, the experience of residents of the National Capital Region (NCR) of Delhi, with an estimated headcount of two crore, last week that resulted in choking and breathlessness as reported in the dailies, stands out. If the disclosure by authoritative sources that polluted air of NCR takes a toll of 35,000 lives annually doesn’t shock anybody, what else will? There is nothing much to write home about the quality of water from all sources, soil of cultivated regions, food supplied in the public distribution system, civil works executed under government aegis, literature produced by writers, drugs in wide use and so on only in a partial list.

A day-long orientation programme on the quality of higher education organised by an educational institution last week in city augurs well for bringing about the desirable makeover in the quality of aforementioned factors affecting the life of people.