Letters to the Editor: Sleep: A fundamental right

Sleep: A fundamental right

Today, the most popular proverb ‘Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’ serves more as a privilege than as advice. In India, external forces increasingly shape sleep patterns. Our country is the second-most sleep-deprived nation, as Indians lose sleep due to stress, with anxiety and financial insecurity following closely. Today, gig workers juggling multiple jobs, cab drivers working extended shifts and women balancing employment with unpaid care represent a population that is structurally deprived of rest. The chronic fatigue also affects demographic participation. The geopolitical tensions and economic stress are identified as recurring disruptions of sleep. Climate change and its consequences lead to exhaustion and irritability, making it harder for the body to regulate heat and sustain sleep, particularly in low-income households with inadequate cooling resources. Sleep deprivation reduces civic engagement, weakens decision-making and limits one's ability to challenge the deepening inequality in the existing conditions. Irregular work scheduling, long working hours and low wages are central structural causes of poor sleep. While the public discourse continues to frame sleep as a matter of personal discipline, the Supreme Court of India has therefore affirmed that the right to sleep forms part of the fundamental right to life and personal liberty, thereby placing the question of rest squarely within the domain of public responsibility.

Iqbal Saikia,

Guwahati.

Bihu without Zubeen Garg

Recently, I noticed that Bihu is at my doorstep. The air is filled with fragrance as flowers bloom, the cuckoo sings, and a sweet breeze blows. The entire environment is joyful with the call of spring. Yet, why am I unable to enjoy it as I did in previous years? Why does not the news of the approaching Bihu make me happy or fill me with energy? It does not even bring a smile to my face. Then I realised something—we are going to welcome Rongali Bihu without the voice of Zubeen Garg.

For many years, his golden voice has seemed to invite spring itself. His songs have been an inseparable part of Bihu celebrations. That voice, so familiar and powerful, feels irreplaceably like home—even the song of the cuckoo or the Indian nightingale cannot fill that absence. After hearing the teenage violin prodigy Yehudi Menuhin perform, Albert Einstein once exclaimed, “Now I know there is a God in heaven!” In a similar way, as I realize that we must celebrate Bihu without our beloved Zubeen Garg, my heart silently cries out—we have lost a god of music on earth. From childhood to the present, the fragrance of his Bihu songs has permeated our lives. His voice has been a constant presence in our celebrations. How will the people of Assam welcome this Bihu without that familiar voice?

Akashpratim Sensua,

Sivasagar University