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WHO CARES FOR NORMS HERE?

Dr Shura Darapuri

Everyday like few years back, we used to get the news of serial bombblasts, one gets the news of innocent school children, for no fault of theirs

getting hurt in road accidents, incidents of traffic disruptions on some

pretext or the other affecting school going children becoming almost a

regular feature, some of the teachers beating school children black and

blue, yet going Scot free, unpunished. Cases of molestation of students in

educational institutions, students committing suicides, incidents of

shameful ragging in educational institutions school- going children

kidnapping friends for ransom money, without batting an eyelid. The other

day a young girl was being badly beaten by a group of adolescent boys,

which was being shown on the You- Tube. The goons it seems have takenday off and have allowed entry to the so-called civilized gentry in their

trade!

The question arises where are we heading to? Does ability to use mobiles,

computers, driving cars, speaking fluent English make us civilized? Even

with enormous amount of degrees issued to us do we really qualify to be

called civilized? We are categorized as a Third World country, and do not

have much resources at our disposal, for example many areas are still not

connected properly owing to lack of transport and do not of have the basic

facilities like clean drinking water, electricity etc. Yet in our country,

burning public property to mark protest has become a norm be it anindividual or a group protest. We forget the kind of example we are

setting before the posterity? In marking protest against price rise,

resorting to violence, burning our countrys already scarce expensive

public property succeed in bringing it down? Then perhaps the solutions

to most problems lay at a stones throw literally. If every individual

decides to resort to such modes of protest, day will not be far when we

are left totally devoid of already meager basic facilities and no commodity

left to call expensive or cheap. Traffic disruption owing to the

protesters causes much inconvenience to the people most of all children,

old people, ailing patients, some die even before reaching the hospitals.

Our sensibilities shudder at the thought of children getting hurt in a road

accident yet unable to get immediate first aid owing to the delay caused

by traffic dislocation.

One fails to understand, with a history of struggle for self government

against an alien rule have we been successful in understanding true

meaning of democracy? We have failed day after day. A school going child

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dies in a road accident a mother loses apple of her eye, her only child, at

that time there is not a single brow of protest raised from any side .Is life

so cheap in our country? There is a lingering feeling of dread and unease

in the minds of every parent, till a child returns safely home from school.

Calling attention of school administration or government quarters goes

unheard; people have nothing to depend on but god for the well being oftheir kith and kin. No wonder instead of more police stations and hospitals

which ought to be there on the road, we have more religious buildings.

But the thing is, where do we stand morally? Violence going unabated

indicates poor state of morality! But where are we getting lessons on

morality? Morality in simple words means concerned about others

welfares as we our for ours, that is the basic condition for peaceful

coexistence. It is only when we are morally strong it becomes easier for us

to be rule abiding because then we can easily distinguish between right

and wrong.

But in real life what are the enacting principles of morality? We areforever pointing finger at others, sometimes it is the government,

sometimes it is the foreign hand. But if we go for self introspection

where do we ourselves actually stand? If we read news about school

children getting killed in a road accident what do we say? A few words of

sympathy or sigh a breath of relief thinking it wasnt our child but fail to

realize next time it might be, and he might become a victim of our own

callousness!

Instead of leaving everything to destiny we ought to believe in ourselves

and in the rule of law and make every effort to bring to book the errant!

But we wait till someone else bells the cat or some miracle to happen!

Indians love miracles! They tend to live more in their past than present!

They get fascinated by fairy tales and cant hide their feelings of disbelief

yet believing whole heartedly in the miracles. They believe so much in

miracles that most of them have lost faith in themselves and others. They

wait for the outside force to work for them! That is why most remain way

behind in their lessons of morality and fail to impart the lessons to their

children! Violence committed in their favor is justified but when they

succumb to violence it is branded as bad!

In present times when our siblings are becoming innocent patrons ofviolence it is time to become alert! They have to be diverted lovingly to

the path of morality. They have to be taught to be truthful, honest,

tolerant, compassionate, forgiving and non-violent. For peaceful

coexistence and for translating democracy into reality these are the

values to be inculcated in every child.

Dr Shura Darapuri

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Coordinator (I/C)

Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy,

Baba Saheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar University,

Lucknow. (U.P.), India