the sign of a very very sick society

                    the sign of a  very very sick society…

                                By Vivek Hande

What has happened to us as a society? Is there no end to this perversion?  Are  there  new depths to which we can plummet? Is there an end to this? Is there any light at all, at the end of this interminable dark tunnel?

I am , by nature , an optimist . But I ask myself ,is there place for optimism? You pick up the paper any day and you have to read the gory details of a terrible rape in some part of the city or country. No age, locality, socio-economic class seems to be spared. It almost seems to have reached epidemic proportions. Is it because we have degenerated as a society ; is it to do with poor upbringing; is it to do with moral decadence; altered value systems ;is it to do with economy or corruption or whatever else people want to blame everything on? I just cannot fathom how and why we have reached this terrible state of depravity?

The same cycle repeats itself again and again. There is a rape followed by some angry and agonized sound bytes. Some grand-standing  and some sloganeering. Some candle marches and some innovative placards and posters being thrown about. Endless debates on endless TV shows -discussing, pontificating, suggesting and demanding and so on. But unfortunately, while these discussions are  on , another woman , another girl , another child is being raped and we seem to be silent bystanders . While the protests grow louder and slogans are high pitched, the noise and the din seems to be drowning the screams and pleas of another woman being violated that very moment.

Laws and Bills are being discussed and being promulgated. Discussions take place at every level- the street side chai shop; in homes and malls; in clubs and cafes; in print and visual media; in Supreme court and Parliament but the sad truth is that the epidemic rages on. I don’t want to get into a debate on a “second chance” for the rapist and the “quantum of punishment” and other distracting issues. I just know that there has to be a system in place where a man thinks and thinks and thinks yet again before committing this most heinous crime –unless there is a fear, unless he is scared that the crime will be followed by punishment and humiliation for himself, he will continue to be emboldened to behave in this dastardly manner.

Man, they have often said, is a social animal. But behaving in this terribly anti-social manner is worse than any animal. An animal pounces or attacks for its own survival, for its own existence, for being a part of the food chain. But this attack and violation of another person’s privacy and sanctity is the surest sign of a terribly sick society. How much more are we going to degenerat