Safety, a cost and an opportunity

Cyclone Michaung is wreaking havoc in Tamil Nadu.

Though 41 construction workers were finally saved from the collapsed Silkyara tunnel after 17 days of rescue operations in Uttarakhand, this happy ending is more the exception than the rule in India.

The lack of safety is actually all-pervasive and runs deep in the Indian system. There is a need for the expansion of safety features in constructions, transport arrangements, working conditions, scavenging, public places, tourism, hospitals, educational institutions, and so on. And, of course, there is a need for air, water, and food that are safe. Also, we need greater safety from "natural" calamities. Finally, citizens require safeguarding from random "factors" such as stray dogs on the streets, road rage, gas leakages, stampedes, spurious liquor, hacking, waterlogging, fraud, sexual and non-sexual harassment, rape, messy electrical wiring on roadsides, trolling, encroachment, loan sharks, and so on.

Higher safety standards have a cost. This is, of course, problematic at the level of a household, a firm, or a public authority. But this holds true at the microeconomic level. At the macroeconomic level, there is actually an opportunity, which is the focus here.