Cyclic violence

Different countries have different standards and views about corporal punishment. India still belongs among those countries where parents do not voluntarily exercise restraint on corporal punishment. Schools, too, find it the most convenient mode of disciplining children and sordid sagas emerging out of such institutions are many. In fact, the axiom, ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’, is taken to such extremes that nothing comes as a surprise. The viral video of a 37-year-old man beating up his 10-year-old son for lying to him is proof of the open secret. The video was recorded by the mother of the child on her cell phone and surfaced after she took the device to a technician for repairs. The mobile technician who viewed the video while restoring the content (although not a desirable thing under normal circumstances) took it to the police. In the given instance, the kind of abuse that the child has been subjected to is cruel to say the least. It clearly shows the kind of bullying that children face right within the family. Children subjected to such abuse are unlikely to grow up into normal adults and could develop psychological or somatic conditions that may impede their growth. It is also a fact that changes in lifestyle across the board and the pressures that individuals face as part of their lives have sharpened the tendency for cruelty. Most Indians today seem to be aggrieved about something or the other. Corporal punishment is considered a way to get children to conform to the so-called family and social norms. Violence has been accepted as a way of life and a means for elders to assert their will. The need for respecting elders is still not questioned and is taken to be something that children are supposed to do for their own good. However, the very respect that the elders wish to retain is vanishing fast. Understanding this personal trait in the Indian psyche, Gandhi had preached non-violence nearly a century ago. In reality, if we observe the current social situation prevailing in India, it is appalling to notice the frustrations, hurry and complete insensitivity towards others. This is now percolating to individual relations. Set in this background, such maltreatment of children is not surprising anymore. It feels as if, somehow, the desire for economic prosperity has opened the floodgates of inhuman thoughts. As a result, we notice the innumerable rapes followed by murders of minors and helpless people, acid attacks, rising violence at homes and such continuous happenings prove that the Indian social system is collapsing. It never was and at present there is no sign of the so-called rich heritage and illustrious, long history the Indian society claims to possess. To verify this point, one simply has to refer to the recent event reported about a 12-year-old girl, on the orders of the teacher, being slapped 168 times in a Navodaya Vidyalaya in Madhya Pradesh for not doing her homework. Adding insult to injury, the principal of the government-run residential school termed it as a ‘friendly’ punishment instead of taking action against the teacher. Children subjected to abuse are bound to become repositories of hate and violence who could sustain the cycle unwittingly. Unfortunately, we cannot blame the minorities or Pakistan for the serious character aberrations that are sprouting forth all over this country. While we bravely flaunt achievements of sending  a hundred satellites into space and banning triple talaq, while also passing innumerable laws to make the conduct of business in India easier, we forget to address much deeper issues that are staring us in the face. Starting from random mobs pelting stones at school buses to female foetuses being exterminated, the Indian society is stinking and rotten at its core.