Sunanda K Datta-Ray: Pride and prejudice

Where Money Talks

Indians will die of cold but the customs won't allow donated woollens in.

Rules make for a fascinating study, especially divining why they were framed. That thought occurred to me again when some well-meaning people in Singapore, moved by Northern India's perishing cold wave, found their efforts to send a free consignment of secondhand "" fashionably called "pre-used", now "pre-loved" "" woollies thwarted by Customs regulations.

Among the activities of the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations (an umbrella organisation of several NGOs) is the smartly named New2U Thrift Shop which sells "pre-loved clothing, bric-a-brac, books, electrical appliances and even small furniture". Everything in the New2U Thrift Shop is donated, and nothing costs more than a few dollars.

The dedicated volunteers, who run the shop, sorting, pricing, displaying, and selling, say they receive far more gifts than they can stock or sell. Piles of clothes have to be thrown away or offloaded on the karanguni man "" Singapore's equivalent of the bikriwallah "" who is a vanishing species. That's when some women helpers hit on the idea of sending their spare clothes to the needy abroad, SCWO was glad to get rid of excess stuff. But since its raison d'etre is local charity (like a temporary refuge for victims of family violence and those in need of protection), the helpers had to arrange foreign consignments privately.

One persuaded the United World College to allow her free baggage in a container bound for the Philippines. Several others with husbands in multinationals similarly send old, sorry, pre-loved, clothes to various African countries. Reading in the local media of snowstorms in the Himalayas, icy winds blowing down from Kashmir and of people succumbing to the bitter cold, some volunteers thought of sending woollen garments to India. How they managed to collect such a mound of sweaters, flannel jackets, coats and warm scarves I don't know, since it's logical to assume that people discard what they wear, and no one needs woollies in Singapore's humid heat. But there they were all ready for despatch "" if India would have them. 

Apparently, India will not. The women sent several cartons through private passengers flying to Delhi and Calcutta where contact was made with charitable organisations. But Indians come to Singapore to shop, and not many will spare a few kilos of their baggage allowance for charity. In any case, that was before the North India winter crisis. When that happened, two SCWO volunteers went to India's high commission to ask if it could arrange for free cargo on Air-India, Indian or Jet flights to Delhi. The officer they met promised help but called back to say none of the airlines was willing because of expected Customs trouble. India doesn't allow free import of old clothes for charity.

That's the inexplicable psychology of rules for you. For many years, a foreign tourist who flew to Bagdogra could get an Inner Line permit for Darjeeling and Sikkim on arrival, but foreign tourists who travelled cheap by train or bus had to get a permit beforehand. Another eccentricity emerged over Customs clearance when I returned home after a little over a year abroad. The very pleasant official politely explained that I needed a certificate from my employers abroad saying my services had been "terminated." I showed him my contract with the expiry date but that wouldn't do. My job had to be terminated. I e-mailed the dean of the university faculty where I had been teaching to explain the problem and he said laughingly he could give me a certificate saying I had been sacked "" if that's what Indian Customs meant by terminated "" but then I could sue the university for all manner of damages! The greatest absurdity is of pensioners having to turn up clutching certificates by gazetted officers testifying they are not dead.

The ban on free secondhand clothes falls into the same category. Yes, I know, officials will shake a sage head and murmur virtuously that someone might sell the old garments instead of distributing them free. That would certainly make me very sorry for the deprived poor suffering the cold, but I still wouldn't begrudge the seller the little profit he might make. However, I would ask why an all-powerful government can't institute effective checks at the receiving end to ensure gifts are not abused. A blanket ban is like curing a headache with decapitation. But while I labour the point, people in chilly Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are shivering because bureaucratic pig-headedness won't allow boxes of warm garments waiting here, all neatly packed at SCWO's New2U Thrift Shop, to be sent to them for free.

sunanda.dattaray@gmail.com