Molestation of Pride

Although youths today indulge mostly in topics which are far removed from all the social evils afflicting our society I have emphasized here on the relevance of the moral degeneration of the society in the life of the youths who today form the bulk of our population. This article is the result of an incident that occurred on the new year’s eve. I was strolling along with my friends on the busy junction of Brigade Road in Bangalore at around 9 o’clock in the night celebrating the imminent arrival of a new year and the fireworks that accompanied it. However, the night took a sour turn when a group of local ruffians suddenly pounced on a couple of foreigners who were standing metres in front of us.  Within moments the hooligans were all around them and started feeling the girls all over. However, before anyone could react the hooligans ran off and blended with the crowd leaving the girls behind them cowering in fear and disgust. Needless to say everyone in the crowd was nonplussed to see the girls crying right in front of them. It was quite saddening to see the girls traumatised and sheltering behind their companions. However, my horror quickly turned to anger when some of the hooligans started to laugh and hoot at those poor girls. All this really created very bad taste in my mouth and our group cancelled all our further plans and we went back to our homes.

This incident begs one to think about the social evil of molestation and its detrimental effect on the victim. Acts as heinous as sexual molestation can leave extremely deep scars in the victim’s psyche which take a long time to fade. Such an incident can result in the victim losing self respect and confidence in spite of no fault of their own. For a molester such actions give them a momentary sense of pleasure and power while the victim is subjected to trauma which may well last for years. Such events cause the victim to lose faith in society and to evade contact with all strangers.

What is probably all the more lamentable is that incidents such as this are not uncommon in various parts of India. Increasingly more and more cases related to sexual harassment and eve teasing are reported from all over India. Quite shameful for a country which regards itself to be the birthplace of civilization and home to a highly evolved culture which emphasises on proper respect and treatment to your fellow human being. It’s quite disheartening to consider the level of moral disintegration that is permeating throughout the country as instances of such acts keep on surfacing.

What also probably encourages such acts is the absence of sufficient amount of security and the lax attitude of the police which allow the miscreants to walk away scot free. A severe clampdown on such crimes by the police will result in such criminals to think twice before attempting such an act.

One of the factors for the increase in such incidents has been identified as the disparity between the advancement in the technological sphere and that of the social and political spheres. While many youths today are educated and have a modern outlook and lifestyle, certain sections of the society look upon them with mistrust and identify their freedom with vulgarity.

Traditionally, India has always been a country of male chauvinists and that streak is still visible as men continue to flout the rules with impunity under the gross misconception that such acts are justified. This streak can only be cured by providing proper education to all the masses and thus imbibing them with a more liberal outlook.

Another disturbing fact to surface is the particular fondness that such miscreants have for foreign tourists in India as instances of foreigners in India getting molested are becoming quite frequent. This deals a severe blow to India’s image among the world as an extremely hospitable country to all outsiders. Such instances cause them to lose faith in the country and create quite a negative impression on them. Thus the prestige and reputation of India as an exotic country to visit has taken a severe beating resulting in loss of huge amount of revenues to Indian tourism. Shambolic, perhaps that a country which prides in the belief “Atithi Devo Bhava” which means that a guest is similar to god has to face such a crisis.

All in all, this is an issue which must be dealt with swiftly and decisively otherwise it threatens to undermine the very fabric upon which our society has been built and erode away whatever progress that has been made in our country and strive to achieve a state which can be summed by the following few words-

“   I dream of a nation where children are free to fly in the sky,

     I dream of a nation where everyone has food to eat and clothes to try,

     I dream of a nation where dreams even grown men can see,

     I dream of a nation where a woman can be whatever she feels to be. ”