The wise the world over think at least 100 years ahead of their time. In addition to England, France and Germany, think about the United States of America. In fact, Europe as a whole thought, and thinks, much ahead of its time. Those who ushered in the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution were great, farsighted people. Future was transparently clear before their eyes. When the forces of time, “Zeitgeist” in one word, loosened the grip of morality’s disposable baggage, a stage came when “rituals” like wedlock became automatically redundant. They foresaw this possibility and, like an honest “nation builder” devised ways to save their respective societies from disequilibrium. Thanks to them, they brag, there is no disorganisation in the western society although formal wedding is no more a tradition over there and marriage has been silently replaced by “live-in” in the U.S. Its camp followers in the East are galloping fast towards this direction. In these countries those conceived on the wrong side of the quilt carry no stigma. They inherit properties and receive all the legal rights and benefits that those “conceived on the right side of the quilt” get from their biological parents.
Even the gays and lesbians, who because of callous nature’s non-cooperation, are not in a position to multiply the personages of their ilk, are trying hard to bequeath their properties to each other as one sees in the case of normal, married couples.
As far as wisdom and farsightedness is concerned, our country is centuries behind these models of advancement. True, the laws pertaining to sexual crime are lax and lenient and each and every conceivable effort has been made by our successive governments to popularise what we conservatives call immorality, yet no imaginative steps have been taken to save the society from the consequences of what they call free, liberal, enlightened approach to sex.
Survey after survey has consistently been bringing it to public notice that teenage pregnancies are on the rise. But nobody comes out to deal with the issue in the manner the West has dealt with. What the Indian wiseacres do is provision of cheap or easily available measures to prevent births, in which the fun-loving indulgents are not interested.
Take the latest survey conducted by DMRC in the National Capital’s poshest area, called South Delhi. It reveals that one in four boys had sex before he was 13. Fifty-seven per cent of the surveyed students, all belonging to the creamiest layer of society, said they had multiple sexual partners. While 12.5 per cent boys revealed they had lost virginity. A 3-member team, consisting of Profs. Sanjay Chaturvedi, Vilas Grover and an independent researcher Dr. Rahul Sharma, has conducted this research. A branded cynic feels things won’t stop at that data. It would proliferate with too obvious results. The wisdom perhaps demands the States as well as the Central Government sincerely think about constructing “Bastard Homes” and pass a law outlawing calling the bastards what they are! It is necessary to ensure their and their parents’ self-respect and status!
A fallacious notion prevails in our plural society. A woman officer can help a woman victim because the former understands the pain of the latter. So is true of Muslim officers even Ministers and Muslim victims. Laws of the country, watch of the vigilantes laced with sarcasm and gibes, pressure of the inimical quarters and their own feeling of utter insecurity compels them to succumb to baser instincts. Could any Muslim President go out of the way to prevent the periodic upheaval?
Only recently 18 women IPS probationers have passed out from the National Police Academy. True, they have created a record of sorts. But can they stop rapes, adultery, fornication and unnatural sex, both at upper echelons and lower rungs?
Today promiscuity is being glorified and glamourised through various channels, including jokes.
Jack: John! You are 90 plus. You had been charged with adultery! And you confessed to the crime! How is it?
John: Jack! The allegation was flattering, indeed!