A shame

[pavalamani pragasam]

A Shame

The news in the front page of today’s “The Hindu”: ‘Harassed’ girl commits immolation, 3 boys held.
A 13-year- old girl immolated herself due to sexual harassment by 3 boys near her house at Pallavaram, Chennai… The Pallavaram police have arrested the boys, all of them aged between 10 and 14, on the charge of sexual harassment and lodged them in the juvenile Home…One of the arrested boys is employed in a scrap iron shop, while the other two are studying in standards VI and VII. The dead girl was a standard VIII student, always among the top three students and secured the first rank recently.

Where are we going? What is happening to our society? Who is responsible for this degeneration of our youth? Is it not time some steps were taken to curb the unlicensed vulgarity in the silver screen? Our impressionable youth are perhaps not ready yet to digest global liberty standards.

Please share your views.

[Surya]

-deleted-

Yea, it's sickening!!! I say that these kids should be punished without mercy. Severe punishments, just to set an example.

[nirosha sen]

Well, I'm surprised for a high ranker like her, she couldn't confide in anybody????!!!! Not parents, teachers, class-mates, etc!!!

Bullying or in India, they call it eve-teasing, has never and will never be eradicated, Pa!! That's why parents have constantly to be on the lookout for symptoms of bullying. In Japan, it's even worse, juvenile suicide is all too common.

I'm a pesky mum who constantly turns up in the corridors of schools, to tackle school issues. One way of keeping an eye on my kids, actually!! Despite it, they still come home with problems of bad schoolmates picking on them.

I always encourage them to mention my name as defence if the heat is too much to bear in school!!!

[Surya]

Bullying in schools can never be eradicated. The only way to deal with it is to show people that you're not the kind who's going to take bulling. That's what I did in HS. It seemed to work. For girls, I think that running to the parents or authorities would be best if things are getting worse than she can handle. For guys, it's a matter of pride, you can't run to authorities or parents if u do, then ur labled that ur a momma's boy or something.

[a.ratchasi]

Parents, siblings and adults at home should be on a look out for changes in child's behaviour.

As for the perverts, they should be caned and caned until they see what is it like to be at the receiving end.

[Badri]

As for the perverts, they should be canned and canned until they see what is it like to be at the receiving end.

Punishment at schools is becoming a matter of concern too! Read in today's paper that a boy in Chennai jumped out of the 4th floor because he was asked to stand outside the classroom for not having done his homework! He broke his jaw and suffered some fractures, and the teacher, a young lady of 22 was arrested.

Earlier, no one really bothered when students were punished at school; Hey, God knows how many times we were caned at school!

Now, teachers are panicking. To hell with the students, let them go to dogs; I don't want to get arrested for trying to better a student, is what most teachers would be thinking, I am sure!

And if more and more teachers start to feel that way, we will just have one really unruly generation (s) coming up in the future, and more and more such sickening incidents are bound to happen.

Where do we all start, I wonder? And where is this all going to end!!

[Querida]

That truly is a terrible shame

I know here the other day i was shocked to find that the sexual predator that was roaming a nearby neighbourhood was a 16 year old boy! He had harrassed ladies from 33 to 11 honestly i know the punishment here for criminals and young offenders are way way too lax!

[Badri]

Our impressionable youth are perhaps not ready yet to digest global liberty standards.

A very very valid statement! While we go on and on about freedom of expression, we are overlooking the fact that our exposure to the "free culture" is a bit too fast.

At the risk of sounding cliched, I would say, "culture shock" about sums it up.

Our movies and media are opening up all of a sudden to embrace the idealogy of no holds barred, without assessing the impact on society. If we lack the maturity to handle this exposure, we are just not ready! If our youth, instead of being more responsible, are actually becoming more and more perverted, then it is high time something is done about it. But, to again use a cliche, who is to bell the cat?

In these times, I think the focus shifts entirely on parents, if they would desire the well being of their children. They have a responsibility of enforcing rather strict rules when it comes to TV watching at home. If something is sleaze, it just must not be encouraged. Instead, I see parents actually cheering their three-year olds when they imitate the hip-thrusting moves seen in movie dance sequences. With parents like these, who needs societal perverts?

Again, parents must try to engender an open home atmosphere, where children can discuss issues like sexual harrassment without either party feeling shy or shameful. That is the harsh reality of our times; gone are the days when these things could be considered taboo and no one spoke of them! At least, not definitely parents and children. Our parents could afford to do that because we were not so much at risk in our childhood or adolscence.

But if we must protect our children today, I think we have to overcome our natural hesitation and encourage our children to open up if they are being harrassed in any way at all.

[Querida]

Instead, I see parents actually cheering their three-year olds when they imitate the hip-thrusting moves seen in movie dance sequences. With parents like these, who needs societal perverts?

that's very true...I have seen the very same...shameful really, now they are cheering later they will be scolding that it is inproper so what's the kid supposed to think? Behaviour is corrected only when reinforcement and punishment is consistent!

I agree very much with all you other views Badri...thanx for writing them out so clearly...

[Badri]

Thanks Q.

But what can one post do when there are so many parents out there blind to the harm they are causing to their own children in the name of more freedom?

Wish I can raise the general level of awareness of people to this issue...then I would consider it a job well done!

If at least, the parents in here in the Hub take cognisance of the reality, and try to make their friends and others see reason as well, we will truly be moving in the right direction.