The Hindu Business Line : In-house attack on social evils

The readymade route to curbing social evils is to enact laws and provide for appropriate punishment. Thus, sati, child marriage, dowry, untouchability, communalism, perpetuation of caste and community and corruption, to cite a few examples, have all been brought within the ambit of special laws at various times. But in the experience of official agencies as well as social activists, a legal-cum-punitive approach has been found to have only a limited impact.

The greatest difficulty in combating social biases and taboos arises from their being deeply rooted in the culture going back centuries and having become an inextricable part of the psyche of the population. Many of those practising them are prepared to brave the consequences of violation of whatever laws there may be, to keep faith, as they view it, with mandatory ancestral tenets.

The other problem with relying on laws is the general atmosphere of laxity in enforcement. The police machinery, having more compelling duties to perform relating to maintenance of law and order and investigation of heinous crimes, is unable to devote the same kind of attention to social offences. (Indeed, some have mooted the idea of establishing a separate enforcement squad for social offences, without mixing them up with the usual police functions.)

No wonder, then, many of these evils refuse to die down, and reports still keep appearing on the persistence of sati, dowry and so on.

Civil society organisations have, in their own way, been fighting these evils by generating public pressure and organising resistance movements. Here again, their attempts, instead of being sustained, have been mostly feeble and fragmented, besides being hamstrung by paucity of resources and manpower.

Is it possible to think of an innovative and powerful weapon which the perpetrators of the evils would be unable to resist? Yes, mounting an in-house attack is an idea whose time has come.

There are already sporadic examples of successful deployment of the weapon and all that is needed is to make its application widespread and purposeful.

For instance, we come across media stories of courageous brides walking out of marriage halls to protest dowry demands.

There are also instances of women filing criminal cases against their husbands and in-laws, and bringing them to justice.

Wrath of kith and kin

Likewise, some candidates falling within the reserved quotas for SCs/STs are known to have boldly told the interviewing boards to consider them as general candidates since they wanted to stand on their own legs without any artificial props.

I know of some aspirants for jobs not disclosing their castes/communities in the application forms. (It is not common knowledge that there is a Government Order giving the freedom to job-seekers not to reveal their castes/communities, if they so wish.)

Take corruption. After all, the cruel bloodsucker of society also has a father, son, wife, brother, sister, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, relative or friend, and all of them are sure to know that he is given to fleecing people.

Do they not, in a sense, become witting accomplices to his barbaric crime if they partake of the fruits of his corruption?

To avoid being tainted themselves, why not they rise in revolt and make it clear to the greedy grabber that if he does not desist from taking bribes, they would themselves have him prosecuted, or at the very least, they would have no truck with him?

Supposing each evil-doer is made to face the wrath of his own kith and kin in this way, would it not make a conspicuous difference?

B. S. RAGHAVAN