Editorials

What About India, Bangladesh and Nepal?

4 September 2017

By Lauren E. White

You’ll have heard on the news that Texas is currently experiencing major damage after Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc through the southern state. It killed fifty people and residents, many of whom were evacuated by helicopters, and are only starting to rebuild their lives now.

However, during Hurricane Harvey, India, Bangladesh and Nepal were experiencing major flooding too. And still are now. Most of India is under water.

A monsoon on 29th August left houses submerged and ruined, roads blocked, hospitals under water and shut down the commuter railway which carries more people every day than living in Denmark. Did you hear about it on the news? Probably not.

India’s death toll is still being counted and so far 1,000 people have been declared dead, but bodies are still washing up and being found by residents whose lives have been destroyed.

According to the United Nations, 41 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal have been directly impacted by the flooding.

It was shocking to me that people all over the world were sending their prayers to Texas and not India, which was going through virtually the same atrocity. This exposed, for me, a complete double standard. We only care about the west, where we are from as if lives elsewhere are irrelevant and disposable.

Why is it that the citizens of Texas are more valuable than those of India? After all, there are parallels to be drawn between the people in both areas. Many Texans find themselves living in poverty, just as many Indians do.

However, unlike India, Texas has the power of the United States behind it. It has a huge wealth that is used to help them recover properly from these natural disasters. India, although getting better, does not. Texas had helicopters, while India has rafts and umbrellas. But that doesn’t matter because India is not in the west.

Not only was a double standard about people exposed, but one about the media too. Hardly any national British media corporation put this story on their news programmes or in their papers. I recall seeing only ITV News at Ten talking about it after they featured the story about Texas. Not even the media, whose job it is to report the news and give a voice to the voiceless, could be bothered to tell people about India’s floods.

Of course, Texas’ hurricane was news and should rightly be reported. But what I’m saying is that India’s floods were just as important and should have been reported accordingly. It’s only fair that the citizens of India are given the same voice as those of Texas, otherwise we have a lot of work to do on our priorities.

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