Human Values

Human Values

• It is the essence of human being existence. They determine the core characteristics of the goodness of human behaviour.
• They have evolved over a period of time and are linked with emotions and feelings of humans.
• Although society, religion, location, and other factors influence value systems, some values are universal among people. 
• All value systems contain these principles, and all people uphold them. They are referred to as human values.  Human values have been essential to the evolution of human society.

Example:

• Freedom, Creativity, Love & Wisdom

Human Values: Freedom

• Every living creature needs freedom to function. They always detest being bound or constrained. 
• The pursuit of individual freedom has been a guiding theme of human civilisation throughout most of history. The foundation of the entire human civilization is this ongoing pursuit of freedom.

Human Values: Love

Public and Private Life

• It refers to the moral standards one may uphold when engaging with others and conducting business in their professional life.

Principles in Public Relations

1. Selflessness: Public officials ought to act solely in the public interest. 

Example: 

• Super 30 by Anand Kumar and Abhayanand (the former D.G.P of Bihar) to provide free coaching to poor and marginalised students. 
• CSR Activities of TATA Group like starting a Cancer hospital in Assam etc.
• Mother Teressa cancelled the Nobel Prize launch program for feeding poor kids
• ISCKON Temples has been feeding people daily the serving the humanity
• “Pibanti Naddhah, Swayameva Naambha” - Rivers don’t drink their own water, they give it away altruistically

2. Integrity: Holders of public office shouldn't be tied down in any way, whether financially or otherwise, to individuals or groups outside of their position.

Example: A policeman ordered to fire on unarmed peaceful protestors. Honest policemen will obey the order. A policeman of integrity will refuse to fire.

3. Objectivity: Decisions should be taken based on merit only. 

Example: A judicial magistrate with objectivity would go by the merits of a drug abuse case related to Bollywood, instead of a media trial.

4. Accountability: It is the first chapter in the book of public service. Holders of public office should be accountable for their actions taken by them. 

Example:

• Portugal’s health Minister Marta Temido has resigned after a pregnant Indian tourist died due to her decision to temporarily close emergency obstetric services in Lisbon.
• PM Narendra Modi came forward to support the team of the Chandrayaan -2 Mission after the unsuccessful landing of the ‘Vikram’.  
• Vikram Sarabhai accepted the failure of ISRO’s first mission without actually putting it on the mission head (APJ Abdul Kalam)

5. Openness: Holders of public office should be as open as possible.

Example: Honesty: Honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from becoming a failure. Holders of public office must declare any private interests relating to their public duties 

6. Loyalty to the Organization 

Example:

• Doctors and front-line workers showed loyalty to the organization during Covid – 19 pandemics.
• The employee of Taj Hotel Mumbai showed their highest form of loyalty during the 26/11 terror attack while serving, they went beyond their call of duty to save lives. 

7. Spirit of Service: 

Example 

• Poonam Nautiyal, a healthcare worker in Uttarakhand, used to traverse a path of 8-10 km in the mountains for vaccinating people who cannot come to the vaccination centres such as elderly people, lactating mothers, divyangjan etc.

• ‘Collector Bro’ - A civil servant started the ‘Compassionate Kozhikode’ and ‘Compassionate Keralam’ for cleaning ponds, feeding the hungry, improving lives after floods and involving the youth for the betterment of society.

8. Fairness & Justice 

Example: 

• Justice HR Khanna’s judgement during the emergency.  

• A judge imposing the same fine on a rich and poor man when both have done the same crime may be objective but not fair

Philosophical Reference Gita: Selfless performance of duty (Nishkam Karma) M.K. Gandhi: Service to people especially vulnerable, downtrodden sections of society.Vivekananda: Service to men is service to God. Kant: Moral command is given to the person by his own conscience to act in a selfless manner. It is a moral duty.

Public Relations and Civil Servants

Civil servants must conduct their public lives within an ethical framework. When somebody enters public life, he can’t say that they will conduct their life normally. They are supposed to be strictly guided by the code of conduct and moral code. 

However, in recent times moral erosion of public servants has been observed. It could be due to the following reasons 

• Priority to materialism over Ethics: These things are sacrificed in comparison to materialism and worldly success. Public servants adopt corrupt practices for fulfilling materialistic needs.
• Example: IAS Chhavi Ranjan and Pooja Singhal linked to Corruption charges.
• Social Acceptance: Society as a whole has started to accept corrupt people. Failure on the part of family, schools, society and institutions to inculcate values. 
• Example: 43% of 17thLok Sabha MPs have criminal record
• Institutional issues: These include mega Administration, slow operation and decision-making delays. A number of vertical and horizontal departments have created confusion in the hierarchy leading to delays in decision-making. 

Example: 

• As per the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) more than 5.9 crore cases are pending in courts.
• Most of the CICs offices are running below strength and hence getting delay in reply of RTIs

• Lack of accountability and responsibility: If anything goes well, there is no shortage of people to claim that they are behind that. But if anything goes wrong, nobody is ready to take responsibility. 
• Politico-business-bureaucracy nexus: The public doesn’t resent wrongdoings. It gives decision-makers more liberty to commit such crimes in future.

Example: 

• Adarsh Society Scam of Mumbai
• Coalgate issues
• Neerav Modi defaulted on loan

Private Relations

• It refers to the moral standards that one upholds when interacting with others and confronting challenges in daily life. It mostly concerns interactions with family and friends. 
• They are informal in nature as they are based on feelings rather than on formal rules that regulate them. 
• A person’s private life can act as a motivating factor but many times can be depressing. The surrounding, ambience from which a person comes to the office daily certainly influences his behaviour for the rest of the day. 

Principles in Private Relationships

Although private ethics differ from person to person, some common principles are shared and accepted by society. For example – 

• Honesty: Being truthful and transparent in your personal relationships is important. 
• Example: Truthful to your family regarding the source of income
• Respect: Respecting the boundaries, beliefs, and opinions of others is essential in maintaining healthy relationships. 
• Example: Mutual respect among friends, life partners like Dashrath Manjhi from Gaya who made road in the memory of his wife
• Feeling of Respect for elders of the family
• Fairness: Treating others with fairness is important. 
• Example: Parents take care of their children with the feeling of fairness
• Confidentiality: Maintaining confidentiality and privacy in personal relationships and not sharing personal information without their consent. 
• Example: Avoid sharing controversial happenings of the past with the next generation
• Communication: Effective communication is essential in maintaining healthy relationships. 
• Example: Learning regional languages of friends 
• Loyalty: Loyalty to the partner and family members is essential.
• Example: Among Business Partners like Burger King & McDonald’s
• Shubhra Chadda and Vivek Prabhakar – Chumbak
• Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh - MamaEarth
• Empathy: Demonstrating empathy and compassion towards others by listening to and understanding their concerns. 

• Example: Daughter of Lalu Yadav donated her kidney to him

• Helping senior citizens in relations with compassion

Relation between Private Ethics & Public Ethics

Similarity

• The distinction between private and public ethics is dubious because a person generally upholds the same moral principles in both their private and public lives. 
• Furthermore, there is no clear distinction between a civil servant's private and professional lives. 
• It is unreasonable to expect someone who lacks moral integrity in public to uphold moral principles in private and vice versa. 

Example:

• A government servant's treatment of female co-workers is a reflection of how he treats women in his own home. 

   

Differences

• Personal and professional ethics shouldn't collide since doing so could result in frustration, guilt, confusion, anger and other negative emotions.
• According to the Civil Service's founding principles, a person loses their individuality and joins the greater system when they join the civil service. 

Example:

• Personally, one may feel abortion is morally wrong, but as a doctor, he needs to do an abortion as per professional ethics. 
• Killing a person is unethical but firing on border areas to neutralise terrorists is professional ethics of the army. 

• When performing a role in public, one must separate his personal life and strictly follow a professional code of conduct. 

Ways to Separate Personal and Professional Relations

• Adhere to Objectivity: Take decisions rationally and objectively based on facts and merits only. 
• Follow Code of Conduct: Go by the code of conduct when faced with dilemmas. 
• Impartiality: Be impartial always and ensure that your actions aren’t only impartial but look to be impartial too. 
• Importance to family life: Spend quality time with family and separate work with family. Make them feel that you are not ignoring them, so they are helpful when you are in important public concerns and do not bother you.

Difference between Ethics in Private Relations and Ethics in Public Relations

Parameters	Ethics in Private Relations	Ethics in Public Relations
Nature	Informal, Ex. Relation among Friends	Formal, Ex. Professional Relations in Office
Flexibility	Flexible, Ex. No need to follow protocol	Less Flexible, sometimes show Rigidness, Ex. Relation is based on Code of Conduct, Protocol like in Police department, Army
Level	Personal, Ex. Emotion and Feeling base	Professional, Ex. Hierarchy base
Motive	Self Interest, Ex. Going a Tourist place along with friends	Public Interest/ Organisation interest, Ex. Budget making Process of the Central government, Teamwork to launch Public welfare scheme
Association	Privacy	Openness

Values Associated with Work Life

Role of Family Society and Educational Institutions in Inculcating Values

Socialization

• The process of socialization is how a person acquires the values necessary to function as a contributing and productive member of society. 
• It is a lifelong process of shaping an individual’s social tendencies so that he becomes and remains a valuable and productive member of his community.
• A young biological infant goes through this process to become a contributing and active member of his society. 
• Culture is passed down from one generation to the next through this procedure. 

Mechanism of Socialization

Mechanism	About
Observational Learning	It is the practice of learning by observing others. Social role models like parents, teachers, friends, siblings, etc. serve as conduits for it. Ex. Learning of Mother tongue at home from parents and other members
Conditioning	It is an intentional effort to socialize people by using rewards and punishments to promote and prevent certain behaviours. Ex. Encouragement in school for coming forward to participate in the cultural fest
Role Playing	It is the act of imagining and visualizing oneself as another person and acting in that person's place.  The person can learn about others while acting out these roles and can then adjust his response accordingly. Ex. Street players use this approach to convey specific message (like patriotism in the role of Bhagat Singh) in the society
Trial & Error	It is based on own experiences and self-learning. Ex. Driving, Painting etc.

It is the informal agency of socialization. Family is a network of relationships marked by cooperation, continuity and emotionality not duplicated in any other system.

Role of families in the Formation of values

• There is close contact between the parents and children. Parents are more accessible to the child than other members of the family. 
• The minds of children develop in a major way through the process of non-formal education at home. Home is often said to be the first school, and parents are the first teachers. 

How do Parents help in the formation of values? 

Parents contribute in the formation of values in their children in following ways–

• Observations: Since a child spends maximum time around their parents, it is natural that they observe them keenly and start to inculcate values shown by their parents. 

Example:

• Learning of mother tongue, Food habit, Dressing pattern, Religious rituals etc.

• Conditioning: Those values which are rewarded by the parents become strong, and who are punished become weak. Hence, parents, via this, help in the formation of values in children. 

Example: 

• Reward for study, motivate a child to excel in that whereas punishment for engaging in specific activities like playing game discourage them to do that.

• Role of Customs and Traditions: Customs and traditions taught by the family help the children to be disciplined and organized.

Example:

• If the female members of the family do not have freedom or if they are not allowed to work outside, children would develop the same patriarchal mindset. 

• Ensures smooth integration into society: Family inculcates the values which conform to societal norms and thus ensures value consensus to integrate the child into society. 

Example:

• Tolerance, Respecting the religious values of others, Compassion, Truthfulness

• Emotional Experience: If children grow among secure individuals, they start to trust people around them and their thinking becomes positive. 

Example:

• Helping children with good reading

• Democratic decision-making: The family should allow the child to participate in decision-making and let children put their views and thereafter take decisions. It helps in inculcating democratic values. 

Example:

• Treating all members equally irrespective of gender and age
• Cooking of food of choice of each member in rotational basis

Role of Family in the Socialization of Children 

Styles of Parenting: It is the behaviour displayed by parents to discipline their children and inculcate values in them. Parents translate their love and affection for their children into different styles of parenting. 

Depending upon the style of parenting, it can be classified into three types-

Authoritarian	Democratic	Permissive
They believe in restricting the autonomy of their children.  They impose their value system on their children.  Hence, children of Authoritarian parents are generally –  Over-compliant or hostile  less cooperative,  More Self Centric Less Compassionate Less Empathetic & Biased	They deal with their children in a rational & issue-oriented manner.  Unlike authoritarian parents who rely on physical punishment to discipline their children, democratic parents use the threat of withdrawal of love as a principle mechanism to discipline their children. It is based on Patience and Tolerance.	Permissive parents provide their children with as much freedom as is consistent with the child’s physical survival.  Their parenting will be characterized by neglect, apathy and non-involvement. Parents have indifferent behaviour towards their children, and as a result, children will develop the following values –  Avoidance, Non Involvement,  Indifference

Role of Education

Quotes: 

• Intelligence plus character that is the true goal of education. – Martin Luther King

• Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a cleverer devil. – C S Lewis

• "If a man carefully cultivates values in his conduct, he may still err a little but he won't be far from the standard of truth." -  Confucius

• “Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a cleverer devil.” -  C.S. Lewis

• “Destiny of nation is being shaped in her classroom”. What we learn in the class room that should be reflected through our behaviour in the society.
• Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s quotes on education/teachers

• “The aim of the teacher should be to build character; human values enhance the learning capacity of children through technology and build the confidence among children to be innovative and creative which in turn will make them competitive to face the future."
• “If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel their key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.”

Role of School

• School is the formal agency of socialization. It steps into the life of a child when a child is 4-5 years old.
• School acts as a bridge between family and society and prepares the child for adult life. 

Agents that are at play in value development at School 

Teacher’s effort	Imparting values to Disciples	Curriculum	Extracurricular Activities
Unbiased Treatment Ex. Saint Ramanada from Bhakti movement, enrolled disciples from all sections of society	Impartiality Ex. Disciples like Kabir, Sur Das, Dhana propagated the values of inclusivity and tolerance in the society	Ex.  Values like respecting the country through stories of patriotism of freedom fighters. Societal values through the story of Panchtantra Scientific temperament through the inquisitive syllabus Glorious History and cultural values like Yoga, Traditional medicines, Ayurveda, Meditation etc.	Inculcate values of Team building, Cooperative behaviour Responsibility, Commitment, Tolerance, and Patience. Sports and Leadership Quality. Ex. Schools of Nordic Countries
Commitment and diligence Ex. Kautilaya	Values of hard work, keeping commitments and observing punctuality Ex. Chandragupta Maurya
Imparting Knowledge Ex. Padam shree H. C. Verma	Value of rational and objective thinking Ex. Revolutionised Physics lessons in schools

Education Policy on Role of Education

• As per National Education Policy, education is regarded as the most potent tool to inculcate values in children. 
• School is a place where systematic learning takes place in the earlier year of life. It provides maximum opportunity and exposure to children. 
• Also, in the school a child is introduced for the first time to members of community outside his family i.e., his peer students, teachers and other staff. This enables the child to learn how to regulate his behaviour in society

Efforts to be made to further strengthen the role of Schools

• Etiquettes and values: World’s Best Practice - 

• Japanese system: First four years basic etiquette and values are taught to children. Children are also taught to clean their toilets. 
• Netherlands: In starting few years students are taught in natural environment so that they can develop positive value towards nature. Plastic is also not used in class

• Government Policy framework: Example -

• The National Institute of Educational Research of Japan has figured out twelve moral values to inculcate in students loke Caring for others; Concern for the welfare of the society, environment, cultural heritage; Self-esteem and self-reliance; Social responsibility; Spirituality; Peaceful conflict resolution; Equality; Justice; Truth and freedom. Similar to this can be started in Indi

• Syllabus and text books: Curated syllabus to provide insight into children. 
• Strategy to improve sports activity: Values of sportsmanship, team spirit, and Opportunity to participate in various sports at a tender age help to develop team spirit among students
• Overall personality development: For integrated development schools can focus on activities like activities for Environment protection, 
• Inculcating compassion, truth, mutual coexistence between different cultures, Yoga, workshops on Unity in diversity, constitutional morality, and lessons from philosophers like Gandhi.
• Deconstructing wrong values - Apart from inculcating values, educational institutions and teachers can play an important role in deconstructing wrong values learned by the students. 
• Ex– gender bias, hatred, communalism or casteism learned by students can be deconstructed inculcating a rational approach.

• Technology and Skill training: Value education is needed to train future technocrats by making them fully aware of both the constructive as well as destructive aspects of technology. 
• Ex. AI and counter AI technology

Role of society

Quotes: 

“There are no such things as a self-made man. We are made up of thousands of others” – George Mathew Adams

• The society is a place of informal learning that guarantees inheritance to its members. The social tradition carries values of intimacy, language, love, equality, wishes to live, action, conduct, morality, unity, attachment and jealousy. 

Society as a learning institution facilitates the following -  

• Conformity: It involves changing one’s behaviour to match the responses of others and to fit in with those around us.

Example:

• Gaming habits among children 
• New Dress pattern among youth
• Development of interests/hobbies among college going students
• Tolerance: If one is living in a surrounding with people from a variety of caste, religion and regional background, develop tolerance.

Example:

• Gated society comprises people from different cultures and traditions
• Residential schools and colleges

• Discipline: Individual discipline is brought by society through sanctions and rewards.

Example:

• People assembled for the national anthem use to follow code of conduct

• Socially Responsible: Society encourages individuals to become ethical. 

Example

• Community serving during COVID, Langar (food serving) in Gurudwara strengthens the ethics in the society. 

• Stability and Harmony: Society inculcates such values among people which match with those of the society. This ensures that individuals fit in with society and the social order is sustained. Example: 
• Peace Committee including people from all sections of societies 
• Society teaches young persons to respect its old traditions and customs.
• Social inclusiveness: Society removes the evils of social indifferences like caste, and religion through collective struggle.

Example:

• Community celebration of Durga Puja, Ganesh Utsav
• Workplace where everyone works together

Similarly, society may play a deciding role in developing a crime as a sub cultural phenomenon.  If it does not disapprove the unethical behaviors/acts, it may lower the standards of ethics in the society and it may result into increase in criminal activities. For ex- supporting extra judicial killings/encounters for fast justice paves.

Reasons for the erosion of values

• Materialism: Growing obsession with materialistic gains coupled with rapid commercialisation is eroding values and ethics in society. 

Example:

• Commodification of day-to-day activities like applications for making friends
• Commercialisation of eco-sensitive zone of the Western Ghats like Lavasa city.

• Collapse of moral values: The growing cynicism, gulf between rights and duties, materialistic tendency, moral degradation and violence have affected the powers of man’s wisdom.

Example:

• Old age homes for parents 
• Increase in Rape incidents

• Social breakdown: The vested interests, religious chauvinism, disruption and access attachment to worldly life have created a vacuum in social cohesion and stability. 

Example: 

• Voting patterns based on religious belief
• Mob lynching and murder on fanaticism like Kanhaiya Lal murder in rajasthan
• Religious persecution like Rohingya in Myanmar, Hindus in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh etc.

• Post truth: In the post-truth era, publication/promotion of false results, their dissemination via new social media is also diminishing the importance of values. 

Ex. Fake news and sensationalism

• Disappearing sources of values: Disintegration of traditional joint families, promotion of bigotry, unworthy rituals, religious fanaticism are some reasons for the disappearing sources of values and eroding values in the society. 

Ex. 

• Social media and its evil: Misuse of social media platforms, propagation of fake news, deep fake are spread through social media and is among the reason for erosion of values.

• Ex. Child Pornography
• Life Threatening game like Blue Whale
• Misinformation on Covid vaccines  

• Counter productivity: Social institutions apply highly illogical and unexplained enforcement mechanisms to punish those who deviate from social norms. Most of the time, it turns out be counter-productive.
• By standers apathy – Silence of good people is more dangerous than the violence of good people. The bystander effect occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation.

• Ex. During Covid, many neighbours refused to come for help

Conclusion

The decline in values has led to increased greed and corruption, exploitation and degradation of the environment. It is thus important to contain erosion and distortion of social values. Chasing for materialistic achievements only will not be sustainable in the long-run. Without human dignity and social harmony, higher economic growth can't bring peace and prosperity