Money9 Edit | COVID-19: Needed, the emollience of charity
Many of us have made substantial wealth recently and this is perhaps the time we can donate a small fraction of our disposable income even without disturbing investment discipline
All major religions – Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism – preach the importance of charity. There is also an extremely significant position of charity even in developed economies – look no further than the foundations set up by big-ticket investors from Rockefeller to Bill Gates. As the COVID wave inundates vast parts of the country, and cynicism grips the country, it is perhaps time to remember the age-old virtues of charity and stand by the suffering millions in our country.
The government is perhaps overstretched, if not overawed, and India Inc is taking initiatives to supplement the efforts of the administration to manage the healthcare crisis better. But we, the vast and famed middle-class of India, also have some duty to the people. We are the middle class who have reimagined India since the 1990s when the economic reforms took place.
It is time again that we the people stand up to lend a helping hand to the nation that we call our own. Despite the overflowing misery in large parts of the population, many of us have made a fortune from different asset classes like equities, mutual funds, and gold recently – precisely the time when the economy was delivered a body blow by the pandemic.
It is now time that we share a part – a very small part – of our wealth with them. This is not to suggest that we reject financial discipline. But, after meeting all our expenditures, paying all our SIPs, we could put a fraction of our disposable income into charity. It might be institutional, or it might be at an individual level, but charity is an emollience that is needed to alleviate even a small part of the suffering that a huge mass of humanity has sunk into.
It is the very least we owe to our people.