Our immediate environ and our society appear to be throwing up unstable, volatile and eruptive symptoms. This makes one and all feel unsafe and insecure. This is not a happy and healthy indicator.
Women and children, in particular, are now very unsafe in the given social structure. Crimes against both have been increasing in number and in the extent of their cruelty. The details of such crimes also indicate the depravity of the perpetrators of the crimes. Similarly, there have been murders linked with tender-fixing. Dishonesty and criminality have also crept into the arena of games and sports. Physical and material needs have overtaken rationality and civil conduct.
There is a large community of aspirant and ambitious youths. In the process of their growing up, they are fed with glorious pictures regarding their future. But when time comes, there is lack of opportunity of employment and avenues for displaying their entrepreneurship. A large section of such youths comes from economically humble backgrounds. They have lofty ambitions, but they lack adequate support-base for fulfilling such ambitions. There is bound to be frustration when such persons do not achieve what they dreamt of achieving. Alongside, they find around themselves demonstrative and conspicuous consumption coupled with a lavish lifestyle. This is displayed by the novo riche, who are devoid of any traditional base or values. Material aggrandisement drives the frustrated youths to resort to criminal activities.
There is crash materialism and visible decline in the value pattern in the society. When the dreams do not come true, the disappointed and dejected youths could very well be driven to liquor and drugs and further to crude unbecoming behaviour in their social interactions.
This partly explains the gory details that hit the headlines every day, exposing cruel and inhuman rape of young girls and other women. Dacoity and burglary have become daily features even in thickly-populated areas or multistoried buildings. Theft of vehicles and robbery of banks have also become common events. This is true of all layers of society whether rural, semi-urban or urban in character. Given this scenario, the inevitable conclusion is that there is some element of discord and imbalance in our so-called progress and growth.
We have a base population charmed with one-rupee-rice and some windfall earnings from the MGNREGS even without working (as the person executing the works clandestinely uses machinery, which is prohibited). The further charm is to migrate to urban areas, where food is available for a pittance through the Aahar Yojana. Strangely enough in many extended areas, the Aahar scheme is now being funded by crores of rupees drawn from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. The youth is, therefore, driven to think that free support for their basic existence is available as of right. The State-sponsored agencies weave out attractive and comfortable assurances deluding the youths to believe that they have a grand future waiting for them.
With the rural economy in disarray and the urban economy in a state of distortion, the untrained and not fully skilled elements of youths find themselves caught in a vicious circle of frustration, disappointment and disillusionment. These trends cumulatively disenchant the youth power and delink it from the mainstream, reducing it to be a peripheral and marginal element. The youth is envious of the vulgar prosperity of a section of the community and such opulence is not always backed by honest means. Charmed and motivated by such illusion, the youth find themselves lured towards attaining the same. Values and norms become the inevitable casualties in the course of this exercise. In trying to mimic the neo-rich, the youth power forgets its ethical and value-linked moorings and tries to achieve what it finds attractive in its surroundings, irrespective of the means it adopts. This results in distortions and imbalances in an orderly civil society.
The hiatus between ambition or aspiration and achievement is often found to be widening. This leads to greater disappointment and disillusionment. In turn, this adds to the extent of frustration. The young elements, inexperienced as they are, cannot easily reverse the trend, leading to a downward trend of greater intensity. Piercing this vicious spiral is not an easy task. The further frustration in not being able to cope with the situation demoralises the youth power. This inability dampens the enthusiasm and initiative of the youths and has an adverse impact on the efficacy of their potentials. From being assets to themselves, they tend to be disoriented liabilities incapable of pursuing the appropriate paths. This large section of the society misdirects itself and fails to pursue the appropriate and purposive path. It runs after the mirage of unprincipled affluence to the peril of all values and norms.
This phenomenon poses a major problem which is difficult to solve. It has also a tendency to cascade and snowball into an uncontrollable situation. The present-day cruel crimes, perpetrated in an unthinking manner, are demonstrative of this contagious disastrous virus in our social fabric. This trend is potentially highly dangerous and is against the interest of any meaningful and purposive development and growth. Gross materialism and physical pleasures alone should not drastically influence our lifestyle and the goals of our existence. But alas! We are at the centre of a vicious circle spiralling upwards and downwards in a most unethical and valueless trend devoid of any norms. A very recent instance of such aberration is the vulgar and wanton destruction of a statue of Utkalmani Gopabandhu at Jatni in the course of a public agitation relating to the alleged inaction of the local police in apprehending the culprits in a case of gruesome murder. The youths being the largest numerical force, its potentials are thus being geared towards improper paths and objectives.
It is imperative that we should control and reverse the trend. If we want to eliminate or minimise the demonstrably cruel and criminal aberrations erupting in the different sections of the society, the immediate need calls for a change in the orientation and motivation of our leadership and, maybe, of the rest of us. The elders in the society have to set the ideals and have to appropriately guide the youths to remedy the complex and intricate situation. The trend is such that but for being arrested and reversed, it would go beyond the control of all of us. Organised and concerted action is the unavoidable necessity of the present crucial and critical hour. This has to be backed by the sincerest constructive and rectifying efforts on the part of each one of us. Surely, this concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)