Lest we show way to the wayward
BY: Javid Rather
The prettiest and the most charming creation of the Almighty ever undoubtedly is a girl and without her the entire universe will look like a place which is good for nothing —- barren, fallow and unproductive. Every home where a girl is born must specially thank Almighty for blessing them with the rarest gift. But it was a pang to the heart and a dagger to soul to see the immoral inscription on the very gate of one of the Girls Higher Secondary in the summer capital of our saintly vale few days back. Including the inscription in the write up in itself would be humiliating the women folk.
It was very much disturbing to see that some wayward boys had inscribed something on the gate of a school that sent a chill down the spine of every good soul here. It sent a shock wave across the whole valley as no one was aware of the fact that we have stooped so low in terms of our etiquettes and if such elements go Scott free then the day is not far when we will lose the caption “Peer Ver”. Guiding the youth (both boys and girls) towards righteousness is the responsibility we must shoulder together. On one hand we always morally police our girls for doing this and this and not doing that and that, which is a good thing and should remain there till it does not limit the deserved liberty of our girls and not take the extreme form.
But on the other hand, we seem to have failed to police our boys regarding how to behave when out of home. Every now and then we see and hear of the eve teasing, wherein the girls are pressurized so much by the gangs of boys that they either give in before them or give up what they strive for. The situation is alarming and surely needs an instant therapy and surgery.
Be it resorting to the bike stunts, smoking in public, passing comments on to the girls, stalking them on social media and following their track once they are out of the educational institutions, the maximum of our young blood is adding to the waywardness of our society as a whole which is pushing our society towards insecurity for the girls. We must start now and prevent it from the further deterioration. We as the responsible parents, responsible elder siblings, teachers, social servants need to show mirror to the wayward youth by counselling them at several levels and also set some norms that they must obey mandatorily because afterall Kashmir is not known only for its valleys and streams but for its rich disciplined culture too. The discussion doesn’t end here. There is more to it than meets the eye. We need to guide and empower our girls too. Although many of the happenings we see and hear of are consensual and we can’t blame the boys only.
But at the same time, we have to control the hooliganism. Let we start the cleanliness by sterilizing our own compounds first. Girls need to be taught how to tackle such incidents, how to face the untowardness and how to protect themselves. We also need to guide them about the right way of association with their counterparts. Let the educational institutions remain the seats of learning only, let roads remain the paths only to be travelled upon and not fly.
When a girl faces such a situation, most of the times we as parents and brothers either ban their education or punish them instead of supporting and teaching them how to overcome such disasters. Schools must incorporate in their teaching learning process the positive counselling sessions and appreciate the ones who bring about such changes in them. Let us join hands to protect the moral defiling of our society and contribute and cooperate in any of the ways we can.
(The author is a former teacher and presently works as a banking associate in Jammu and Kashmir Bank & can be mailed at [email protected])
