What Aaron Hernandez Needs To Know About India

The former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez was found guilty of first degree murder on April 15. As he has been in solitary confinement for long, newspapers often write tenderly about the former football star who is confined in a 70 feet prison cell. But Aaron Hernandez probably does not know a number of key facts about housing in India, which might surprise him.

Here are the things Fernandez should know about India:

• A large majority of Indians have a living space less than that of a 100 sq. ft. prison room. According to a Times of India report, nearly 32% of the people in urban households have a living space of less than 60 square foot per person. A good 39% of the rural households have a living space of less than 65 square foot per person. The difference is, of course, that unlike Aaron Hernandez who earlier lived in a 7,100-square-foot home, they are happier because they are not in prison.

• Aaron Hernandez is allowed to breathe fresh air and enjoy sunlight for an hour a day, according to prison rules. This has the internet going crazy over it. A related fact is that a large number of people in India, who live in cramped chawls and crowded lanes in cities like Mumbai, do not have access to basic amenities, including water and sunlight that are nature’s gifts to mankind. But that’s still better. In America’s prison cells, a bewildering 2.4 million people are locked up, one of which just happens to be Aaron Hernandez.

• In Hernandez’ cell, there is no air conditioning, television or coffee. But, a number of Indian homes do not have air conditioning or television either. It is important to remember that when India became independent, air conditioning was very rare in the developed West too. But of course, now the West has ample air-conditioning and hence, the uproar over Hernandez’s AC-deprived prison cell. However, imagine what Indians would do with plenty of air-conditioning? Great labour productivity, accelerated urbanization, and aggressive growth in commercial and residential projects across the country! American economist David Landes argued that air-conditioning made many American cities very prosperous and lack of it caused poverty in India.

What stands true for Aaron Fernandez’s prison term today might be a way of life for a number of Indians. But unlike Aaron Hernandez, they are free and law abiding citizens.