The 'Me First' Epidemic: How a Lack of Civic Sense is Holding India Back

The Unseen Cost of a Dropped Wrapper

The scene is a familiar one, played out daily on countless Indian streets. At a bustling traffic signal, the air is thick with the noise of a hundred impatient horns, each driver inching forward, desperate just to close a few feet. The window of a sleek, expensive car rolls down. For a moment, one might expect an act of kindness. Instead, a water bottle is casually tossed onto the road, joining the already existing heap of trash. This act, although seemingly minor, is an example of a larger, more damaging phenomenon. It is a single data point in a vast and troubling trend: the lack of civic sense.

This is not an issue of mere etiquette or aesthetics. The tendency to prioritize individual convenience over collective well-being, a "Me First" attitude, has become a pervasive epidemic. These seemingly small acts of disregard, from jumping a queue to breaking traffic laws, are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a deeper problem that imposes staggering, often invisible, costs on our economy, public health, and collective quality of life. This widespread lack of civic sense is effectively holding India back from realizing its massive potential.

Defining Civic Sense: The Invisible Architecture of a Thriving Society

At its core, civic sense is the moral and social responsibility that citizens display in their conduct within shared spaces. It is an individual's commitment to social ethics like public cleanliness, respect for community infrastructure, and the laws that govern the country. It operates as the invisible architecture of a well-functioning society, the collection of "unspoken social norms" that allow millions of people to coexist harmoniously.

This concept, however, extends far beyond just keeping streets clean. It is a broad spectrum of behaviours that form the foundational pillars of a functioning society. This includes fundamental practices such as adhering to traffic regulations, respecting a queue, participating in community development, and maintaining shared public spaces like parks, metros, railway stations, and monuments.

The reality we live in challenges the simple notion that civic sense is merely an individual virtue. Evidence for this complexity comes from surveys showing that most citizens know what is right but often fail to act on it. This reveals a critical gap not of ignorance, but of action. The reason for this disconnect becomes clear when civic sense is understood as a "two-way street."

This concept suggests that civic responsibility thrives only when rules are clear, infrastructure is reliable, and enforcement is consistent. A widespread failure to act, therefore, is as much a product of systemic failure as it is of individual indifference. It is a rational response to an environment where public systems are unresponsive, forcing individuals into a mindset of self-preservation over the collective good. In essence, the gap between knowing the right thing and doing it is filled by the public's perception of a system that doesn't hold up its end of the bargain.

The Daily Papercuts: How the Epidemic Affects Our Lives

The concept of low civic sense becomes painfully evident in the daily experiences of life in India. These are not huge failures but a series of constant, small transgressions that collectively degrade the quality of public life and create a high-stress environment outside the comfort of home.

The Battleground of the Roads
People often joke saying if you learn to drive in India, you can drive anywhere in the world. But that is because, driving on Indian roads is a "competitive sport". The concept of lane discipline is practically non-existent. Vehicles disregard the warning marks, wrong-side driving is a “shortcut”, and reckless overtaking is “normal driving”. This chaos is often supported with a blaring horn, not as a warning signal but as a tool of frustration. The result is a daily commute characterized by extreme stress, frequent road rage incidents, and a persistent sense of disorder that makes our roads among the most dangerous in the world.

The Ubiquitous Stain
In India, the visual landscape of many public spaces is marred by a casual disregard for cleanliness. The most visual example is the widespread habit of spitting, particularly the rust-coloured stains of gutka (chewable tobacco) that splatter public walls, pavements, railway stations, and government buildings. This behaviour is so ingrained that it has even caused international embarrassment. In the London suburb of Brent, for instance, local authorities had to resort to painting over certain areas because the stubborn gutka stains left by residents of Indian origin could not be removed even with high-powered jets. Alongside this is the almost unconscious act of littering. Plastic wrappers, bottles, and food waste are casually discarded from moving cars and buses, transforming highways into garbage dumps.

Queue-Jumping
The simple, orderly act of waiting in a line is a fundamental building block of social cooperation. In India, however, the queue is often seen as an obstacle to be overcome rather than a norm to be followed. This behaviour, whether at a ticket counter, a bank, or in a traffic jam, is more than just a sign of impatience; it is a "breach of social responsibility". When individuals successfully bypass the queue without any consequence, it sends a powerful message: the rules do not apply, and cooperation is for fools. This diminishes the incentive for others to wait their turn, fostering a self-centred and uncooperative mindset where force, aggression, or "creative thinking" replaces mutual respect.

These daily papercuts are not just minor annoyances; they are significant and build up frustration. The constant battle with traffic, the sight of litter, queue-jumping, and the incessant loud noise create what can be described as a "psychological battlefield". Living in such an environment forces citizens into a perpetual state of high alert, a "fight-or-flight" mode where survival instincts take precedence over civic obligations. This daily grind depletes what sociologists term "psychological surplus", the cognitive and emotional bandwidth required for patience, altruism, and long-term, community-oriented thinking. This creates a corrosive, self-reinforcing cycle: the lack of civic sense makes public spaces stressful, and that stress, in turn, makes individuals more likely to adopt a "Me First" survival strategy, further degrading the civic environment for everyone.

Unpacking the Roots of the 'Me First' Mindset

To address the epidemic of poor civic sense, it is crucial to move beyond simplistic explanations of individual moral failure and explore the deeper, systemic roots of the "Me First" mindset. The behaviour we witness on our streets is often not a conscious choice to be inconsiderate, but a conditioned response to a challenging and often dysfunctional environment.

Systemic Failure as a Root Cause
A significant driver of civic apathy is the nature of governance and public infrastructure itself.

• Unresponsive Governance: When citizens' complaints about broken roads, overflowing garbage, or illegal encroachments are consistently ignored, it fosters a sense of cynicism and learned helplessness. This perception that the system is unresponsive leads to a breakdown in the social contract, encouraging an "every man for himself" mentality where individuals feel they must fend for themselves because the state will not.

• Inadequate Infrastructure: It is difficult to practice civic sense in an environment that is not designed for it. The absence of sufficient dustbins, the lack of safe and accessible footpaths, and poorly maintained public toilets create conditions where littering and jaywalking become the path of least resistance. Civic behaviour is often a direct response to the quality of the surrounding infrastructure; a clean, well-maintained environment naturally encourages more responsible behaviour.

• Inconsistent Enforcement: The lax and inconsistent enforcement of laws against littering, traffic violations, and noise pollution sends a clear signal that these rules are not taken seriously. When people see others breaking rules with no remorse, from jumping traffic signals to bribing officials, it erodes the motivation to comply. This lack of consequences for rule-breakers is a powerful disincentive for civic responsibility.

The Psychology of Scarcity and Survival
The daily experience of urban life in many parts of India is a significant psychological burden. As highlighted earlier, the combination of extreme traffic congestion, queue-jumping, and systemic hurdles creates a high-stress environment that depletes citizens' "psychological surplus". When individuals are constantly operating in "survival mode," their cognitive focus naturally narrows to immediate, personal needs and self-interest. They simply lack the mental and emotional bandwidth to consider the broader community's welfare. In this context, an act like cutting a queue to save a few minutes is not necessarily born of malice, but from a desperate attempt to conserve precious time and energy in an exhausting environment. Civic sense, in this view, becomes a luxury that many feel they cannot afford.

The Education Gap
The education system bears a share of the responsibility for the civic deficit. While subjects like Civics are a part of the school curriculum, they are often taught in a theoretical, abstract manner, focusing on rote learning of rights and duties rather than the cultivation of practical values and behaviours. The Indian educational system frequently prioritizes academic achievement and competition above all else, failing to instil a deep-rooted sense of empathy, community responsibility, or respect for public property. The system produces students who may know the structure of the government but have not been taught the fundamental principles of how to live together as responsible members of a society. This educational gap means that a critical opportunity to shape the civic consciousness of the next generation is being missed.

From 'Me First' to 'We First'- A Blueprint for a New Civic Consciousness

The "Me First" epidemic is not an inherent cultural trait or an undeniable feature of the Indian character. It is a complex, systemic problem with deep historical, sociological, and psychological roots. The daily papercuts of civic indiscipline, the littered streets, the chaotic traffic, the broken queues, all these are symptoms of a larger condition where the social contract between the citizen and the country has frayed. This is not a problem of individual morality alone; it is a collective challenge that demands a collective solution.

Addressing this challenge requires moving beyond finding someone to blame and instead embracing a multi-pronged approach that aims to rebuild the very foundations of our public life. This is not about imposing discipline from the top down, an approach that history has shown to be unsustainable. It is about creating an environment where civic sense can naturally flourish. This new social contract must be built on three pillars:

• Responsive Governance: The state must uphold its end of the bargain. This means investing in high-quality, accessible public infrastructure such as clean toilets, accessible dustbins, safe footpaths, and well-designed roads. It requires fair, consistent, and transparent enforcement of laws, ensuring that rules apply equally to everyone. Most importantly, it demands a shift towards a more responsive and accountable system of governance where citizens feel that their voices are heard and their taxes are being used to tangibly improve their environment.

• Reimagined Education: Civic education must be transformed from a dry, theoretical subject into a core component of the learning experience. Schools must become laboratories for civic life, where students are taught empathy, community responsibility, and critical thinking through practical, project-based learning. Integrating activities like community clean-up drives, peer counselling, and environmental projects into the formal curriculum can help translate civic knowledge into lived values.

• Empowered Communities: Fostering a sense of ownership is key to overcoming the "someone else's problem" attitude. Empowering local community bodies, such as Residents' Welfare Associations (RWAs) and Panchayats, with the resources and authority to manage their own public spaces can create a powerful sense of local pride and accountability.

Just as a wave of negative actions has created a vicious cycle of civic decay, a conscious effort to reverse these trends can create a powerful, virtuous one. A cleaner street encourages the next person not to litter. Smoother, more orderly traffic reduces the stress and aggression that fuel reckless behaviour. Each small, conscious act of civic responsibility contributes to lowering the environmental stress, thereby rebuilding the "psychological surplus" necessary for a more cooperative and altruistic society.

The journey from "Me First" to "We First" is undoubtedly long and arduous. It requires a fundamental shift in both institutional performance and collective consciousness. Building a cleaner, more efficient, and more respectful India is our generation's common purpose. It is not just a government project; it is the shared responsibility and the shared opportunity for over a billion people. The journey starts with each of us.