Increasing Child Abuse Incidents

Bangalore woke up to the shock of series of child rape incidents recently. For the tolerant cosmopolitan nature of Bangalore the child rape incidents have marred its image. Parents across the city gathered for protest. Candle light vigil was held. Government was blamed for lethargy. School authorities were blamed for indifference. The culprits were arrested. Police commissioner was changed. But the incidents continue to occur. Elsewhere in the state another incident of child abduction and rape happened on close heels of these incidents.

It seems like people just like to fix the problems in a jiffy. Just blame the system, government, police, school, all things around us, make a spark protest and move on. People believe this is a quick fix solution. But is there any long term solution at all?  There is. But multitude of things should come together for it.

Government – Should bring in a strong deterrence for erring individuals

Society – Should develop a community culture of good assimilation of different cultures

Individuals – Should dedicate some time for the society and involve in community bonding

Education – Should give equal weightage to Society Value building. Dharmic education should be brought into the primary education compulsorily. 

Parenting – Should spend quality time every day with children for their good upbringing.

The Government

The Government is just a reflection of the society. After sometime the people forget the incidents, leaving the victim’s kith & kin to fight for justice alone. The media will have some other flash news to chase. The Raja (government) will forget the Raja Dharma of protecting the Praja (common man). Instead he will become accompli with the powerful perpetrators and forget the common man.

This should not happen. There is a constant threat to the upright officers in Government. Government heads (politicians) should support & empower upright officers. They should let them perform their duty and bring the culprits to the books.

Government should enact stricter laws for such heinous crime & implement it strictly. It will become a strong deterrence for repeat offenders.

The Culprit

We think the culprit is a Psycho. But one of the victims is a family man with wife & kid. So what drove them to such heinous crime? In all cases, the easy access to the filthy scenes on mobile, internet, etc., made them addict to it. They share it with friends and enjoy the vulgarity. Female becomes an object of lust. It can happen to anybody. The individual has to resist such wrong temptations. Individuals having some good upbringing (Sanskara) will have a subconscious guilt for such wrong deeds & resist such temptations. A weak person succumbs to temptations & enjoys it. A hapless girl child in school becomes the victim.

Child crime by an adult is the most heinous crime. He should be dealt with the strongest possible sentencing by the law of the land. It will deter a criminal from repeat offense.

But can we prevent such crimes altogether in the society? For that entire society needs to create a good upbringing environment. Can we create that environment?

  

The Urban Society

The biggest responsibility lies on society as a whole. But who is society? It is boils down to individuals. Every Individual has to become vigilant & caring.

The individuals in Urban society are increasingly becoming indifferent. We are becoming too much aloof. We are always in a hurry. We are losing connect with the society. We fear talking to strangers. We don’t take any elders advice. We don’t stay with elders. Our only form of entertainment is TV, Gadgets & Mall. Those make us individualistic. The entertainment is also material & money based. Simple chatting with neighbors & saying a hello to the passersby, is a thing of the past now.

Everyday thousands of people migrate to cities. For Bangalore kind of city, people come from all over India. The city becomes a melting pot of cultures. But instead of taking in all the good culture, the society is becoming indifferent or intolerant to the different cultures. So the easy way out is to take to Individualistic culture viz., TV & Mall Culture.

The urban society should reconnect with the roots of our social culture. The apartments, colonies should encourage daily community gathering. It may be for any good purpose. It could be for charcha, pravachana on any social topic, or, group singing, Bhajans, Satsang etc., All people should get a chance of participation. It need not be for religious purpose only; it could be for any social topic like Kannada Sahitya, Filmdom, Drama, Cricket etc., Let it not be current affairs as it leads to another TV kinda debate without much depth and only rhetoric. If it leads to some constructive society and community bond building that would be the best. As much it reduces the TV & Mall culture that much is good. It may not remove it altogether, but it should reduce.

People at their locality should come together for intermingling and appreciating each other’s culture and diversity. It is not busy life which prevents it. But it is our ego. We must become conscious of our ego and try to overcome that. The society bonding will kill that ego if we step out of ourselves and mingle with different people.

The Education

In the current education, value education is missing. Full focus is on skill building for bread earning only. In ancient India, the basic education was Ramayana, Mahabharatha, Bhagavad Geetha. Skill building was part of the process and not the main aim. The value building was the main purpose of education.

But today bringing in Bhagavad Geetha into basic education will face toughest resistance as; it is termed religious education by intellectuals who don’t have time to understand Bhagavad Geetha. So people must find their own solutions for it & not leave it to Government to decide what is best for the kids. People must contribute time & energy to build simple Balabharathi, Bala Gokula classes for community education. Through Shloka recitation, Veer Katha, Geeth, understanding local culture, local deity, we develop a sense of pride & patriotism & good values of life.

The general public should demand “Dharmic” education as part of the primary compulsory education in the system itself. Let there be healthy debate on how to introduce it. How to make it plural considering so many different religions, class, caste, language, creed etc., But it must be debated rather than shunning it as unnecessary crap. It is a NECESSITY for building a good society.

As the child grows up as adult, this value education will deter him to become a pervert in the society. He will also become alert of such perverts around and take necessary action to curb it. And as a child also awareness is created & if he sees something wrong happening around, he’ll raise alarm.

The Parent

The important thing is both parents should bring up their children. Both must dedicate some quality time every day for the child upbringing. They must impart values in the child’s life. They must sacrifice their TV time for some face to face time with the child. Bed time story reading, singing songs together are some good & fun time pass one should adopt. Parents should encourage children to participate in sports. It will bring up basic value education of team bonding, healthy competition, rules adherence, etc., in children. It will also teach the children the good touch, bad touch aspects of life.