The shoot out somewhere in the US of A—yes I did not follow that news as I was caught up with something else.
The Delhi violation, which created national hysteria, and candle light marches.
Within a week of that a girl committed suicide in Chandigarh because the cops ridiculed her instead of taking her complaint.
The worst one was the rape and murder of a 7yrs. Girl at Vasco. Something similar had happened some years ago, maybe 1978 – 80 periods at Antop hill, the predator got 7 years of imprisonment, not even a lifer he was out in the open. The same goes for Aruna Shanbaug’s violator, and she is still in a coma, I do not remember how many years now.
The question you have addressed is very precise, not how do we tackle? But who is to blame? This is a Pandora’s Box that you are opening.
I wish I could point to something and say this is it—but the fact is we the people are responsible for the mess.
The three major areas of failure are in our
- Parenting
- Schooling
- Entertainment.
Ooh! I wonder how many toes I have trod on, well start the kid on the pre-school belt, at 2 ½ then come the great number of extra classes, finally when the kid gets home, he/she is tired, so are the parents, the scenario is feet up, and TV on. What have we created? A Frankenstein monster.
I wish I could say that the shooting at Connecticut is not my business, but unfortunately it threatens to be.
A major cause for this is delegation of parent responsibility.
The parents themselves are glued to the gizmo’s it’s almost like the era of Hephaestus is here.
Be it the television or the public transport the rhythm blaring is very sexually arousing. Most city rapes occur at a time when the movies are over, the audience have already in a state of semi-arousal, add to this violence so the normal switches of right and wrong are switched off.
With Urban India, we are bringing in a concept of 1960 American educators which was to an alternative to the hard work of character formation, hard work both by the person and parent. But the result seems to undermine morality in children. This failed brand of moral education is referred to as “decision-making” by the American educator William Kilpatrick.
Are you wondering how can this be harmful? Here is a study from the Rhode Island Rape Crisis centre. 1.700 students between 6th – 9th standard were surveyed on their attitudes about rape. An astonishing finding was 65% boys thought it was acceptable under certain circumstances, one circumstances was if a man spent money on a woman do you appreciate what we are talking about here?
In the west the value education, life skills etc. Have been created by the message all these drive home is adults don’t have the right to say what’s right and wrong. In the Indian scenario the adults don’t have the time for it.
Interestingly these choices are not extended to other areas, the child does not get to select if he wants to go to school, and he does not get to choose his chemistry experiment but values we let him drift into it.
What these systems focus on is the feel good factor, “I am okay and whatever I want to do is okay”
This provides an easy way out, today teachers are the least revered jobs, people coming for it are people who have found it difficult to get an opening elsewhere. They do not really have much to teach, there subject knowledge is irrelevant. We have B.Ed teachers teaching primary, they are not equipped for this, they are trained to teach high school, each slab of teaching technology is age specific, and we look at the specialities when it comes to every walk of life but when it comes to teaching we don’t look at the resources person.
The young adults not are left to the mercy of the peer group and media to develop its values and the media is controlled by the global business houses.
A minor was raped and killed at Goa. Big hue and cry, what the girl’s friends said was she went willing with the boys, the deal was they would have sex with her and buy her mobile in exchange. These luxury items, expensive clothing watches, handbags, jewellery, are creating huge school-girl prostitution ring.
We are story telling creatures that need drama in our lives almost as we need food the entertainment industry has been successful in moulding young minds because it supplies them with stories, dramas ad images. If moral educators are to be successful in helping children to resist the media attractions then we need to play the role of imagination in moral growth.
Look at any channel that focuses on youth—they are so crafted that the young people lose their capacity, or rather do not develop a capacity to think. The shows are dance, music, splitsville publicly defame your friend. Shooting, dating, and spiking your friends drink.
When this is watched in the living room with the family, we make it acceptable.
Unless we take a stand for our children, and for ourselves this is only going to go from bad to worse.
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