The whole
country witnessed widespread outrage after the recent incidents of merciless
assault on the dignity and modesty of women, especially on innocent young
children. These dastardly acts shook our collective conscience as a nation. It
also casts a dark shadow on our age old civilizational values and the
progressiveness of our society. But most importantly, these incidents
re-ignited the debate on how far we have moved as far as safety of our women
and children are concerned.
Lessons not
learnt well
These
incidents show us that we have not learnt much from the watershed Nirbhaya
case. The government did take some steps after the national outrage in December
2012 but there was no credible follow-up action due to which we are back to
square one.
The
contributing factors
To find
solutions to this disease, we must first understand the cause of such a
situation.
We must never
assume that a man commits such offence for pleasure. If we do so, we are living
in fool’s paradise. A man commits such an act because he thinks that he has the
power to do so. His feeling that a woman or a child is powerless makes him
commit such acts. A powerful tool which, in a way, influences
him to believe so is cinema. The way in which our women are portrayed in movies is one of
the biggest reasons for such depletion in our moral values.
The internet
too is an important contributor. Absence of stringent laws to regulate internet
has made India one of the largest consumer of pornographic material. Another
cause for this state is our schooling system. Right from the beginning, girls
are portrayed as feeble and vulnerable human beings, making the boys treat them
with an inferior mindset.
The way ahead
How do we move
ahead? Well, there are no shortcuts to cure this disease. If we are to uproot this evil we must have a long term roadmap.
First, our
government must begin a complete revamp of our education system. Our school curricula
must have reasonable emphasis on moral education and gender equality. This is
the only way to ensure that children don’t develop an inferior mindset towards
their opposite gender.
Second, our
laws regulating the internet have to be made stringent in order to control the
flow of pornographic material. However, other aspects of internet regulation
should be consistent with the basic principles of a modern society.
Third, our
film industry must realise that they too have an important role to play in restoring
the moral standards of our society and stop indecent and vulgar portrayal of
women in their movies.
Fourth, the
government must prescribe a time limit for disposal of such cases and also
provide for the necessary judicial infrastructure to enable faster disposal. It
should also impose a life ban on persons accused of such offences from holding
any kind of public office.
The writing on
the wall is clear: if we do not act with urgency to reset our moral compass we
will have none but ourselves to blame for the dangerous consequences that
follow.
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