Column

The other night I watched a very interesting programme on TV. It was called CEO Undercover. The CEO of Seven Eleven, a convenience store franchise across US and many other countries, went undercover for a week to find out how things really were in his company for workers, incognito and with the innocuous name of Danny.

The show followed him as he pretended to be a delivery man with a partner who was a regular, worked at the coffee counter with Dolores, a popular and much loved coffee server at one of their outlets, a baker learning how to bake the perfect doughnut at a mass doughnut making factory, a cleaner and several other such daily tasks that make the chain effective and well-oiled.

No one suspected him of being other than who he was. He found that Dolores knew every customer by name, knew how they liked their coffee. And that she had only one kidney, was in dialysis twice a week and on a waiting list for kidney donors. He also found out that she refused to take a kidney from her children as she did not want to jeopardize their future. He found that Benny the baker was also a wonderful artist who could draw funny things.

That Khatij, the new Pakistani immigrant working behind a counter, felt that though they were in the US, the land of opportunity, there was no future in the chain that allowed him to progress. That the truck delivery driver was of Polish origin and barely saw his wife as he was on night duty and she on day. And that by and large the workers were great people who made his company what it was.

Back at his HQ, he calls each one in, and thanks and rewards them. Dolores has a kidney foundation set up in her name. Khatij is personally mentored. Benny gets to build his art portfolio and send in work for their advertising agency. The driver gets a week's holiday with his wife. And the CEO comes out of the week with a much deeper understanding of the people who make his company tick.

Can you imagine something like this happening in India? Can you imagine Anand Mahindra or Mr Bajaj being able to pass themselves off as their drivers or cleaners in the trucks, or ever wanting to? Or one of the Bakeris even attempting to be a mason or brick loader at their building sites? But just think how amazing it would be.

Imagine Minister of Labour actually living the life of our migrant labourers for a few days. They would see the hostility of the employer, the way that his wife might be demanded for sex, the chicanery of the block level official, the corruptgovernment minion at the NREGA desk. Or imagine the Commissioner of Police being on the beat on the road, or at a highway check post. The galis and the dust and fumes they would experience. The housing, cramped, dirty, without privacy, that they would need to share with fellow policemen, the bribes they would be paid ( not that they are not at the high level, but it is just more hands on down there) to turn a blind eye to traffic offences, and so on.

Or imagine a Minister or bureaucrat from the Ministry of Civil Supplies going incognito to get a ration card. Standing in queue for a 5 litre jar of kerosene, or if it was a woman, being asked for sexual favours to get the grain that is her family's due. Or imagine Municipal Commissioner incognito as the sweeper who has to enter the manhole to clean the gutters, risking his life in the process besides bearing the stomach churning of going half naked into the city sewer.

Would it make them more humane and appreciative of the chaos and hardship at the bottom of the pile, as it did the Seven Eleven CEO or would they be completely incapable of doing it in the first place? Would our caste barriers, our class barriers make this impossible for this to happen in India? Perhaps, but just imagine how wonderful it would be if it could!

The writer is a noted danseuse and social activist