CIVIC SENSE | What is civic sense? What are civic responsibilities?

CIVIC sense means social ethics. It examples include keeping roads, streets and public places clean. It reflects the actual personality and shows the responsibility of any person. It encompasses unspoken norms of society that help it run smoothly without someone tripping on somebody else’s toes.

Civic Sense is all about having consideration for a fellow human being. It means being polite, showing consideration to the elderly, women, children and disabled people, driving in one’s lane without honking, throwing one’s garbage in dustbins, and smoking only at designated places. The list can go on.

Good manners are extremely important in life, in school and at the workplace. Without manners people in this world would be unable to communicate with anyone. Manners should be instilled in a child at an early age so that when he grows up, he is natural and not problematic.

Unfortunately, we are lacking in our collective moral behaviour as we do not care for anyone in society. We have become too lazy to show our sympathies and respect which we ought to do. We should be proud of our cultural, religious, social, educational and even more our nation’s civilisation. But irrespective of all these factors, we are going backward in our mannerisms and behaviorism. We are portraying bad images for our religious and civilised sense in the world.

Having a highly developed society and culture, we are deprived of our ethical approach. We lack civil sense, and indulge in separatism, racism, vandalism and road rage.

We believe that since we pay taxes, we have the right to throw garbage, spit, urinate on roads and it is the government’s duty to clean it! During rains, our roads clog up disrupting everyday life, but still we blame the government for not cleaning the drains, though it is we who throw garbage on roads and into drains, which get clogged.

Our people score a big zero when it comes to civic sense. They are so irresponsible that they do not bother about health and hygiene. Similarly, our careless and chaotic driving is taking its toll every day, yet we continue to buy driving licences, and put ourselves, our family and our fellow countrymen at grave risk.

This shows we are much behind and we need to have civic sense.

Being civilised is much more than just living in cities, having computers at home or cellphones in our pockets. To be civilised is, above all, to know how to live in peace with our neighbours and peers.

Many people are still not ready to live in a community. As a general rule, people learn the manners which pertain to their particular social, economic and cultural situation, and travellers must learn specific rules of conduct to fit in as they visit other societies.

Well-mannered sense demands that one must have a feel for others. One must not be a callous person. One should live without disturbing others whether it is home, school, office, theatre or any other place. No one is born civilised. It’s a struggle and a sense that makes one more civilised and full of good etiquettes. We ought to learn to be a good citizen.