The family under legal assault
Citizens must unite and make their voices heard amid bureaucratic inanities, says AVERTHANUS L D’SOUZA
Recent trends in India initiated both by the government as well as by the judiciary, are a cause for grave concern for the citizens of this great country. A recent report in one of the national dailies informed us that a senior official of the Ministry of Women and Child Development confirmed that the Ministry has sent a bill to the Law Minister to enable children who are under the ages of 12 to 14 years to have “non-penetrative” consensual sex without fear of being prosecuted under the Law, which currently stipulates that any sexual activity by children under the age of 16 years is a criminal offence. By a strange irony, the bill is titled: “Protection of Children From Sexual Offences Bill, 2010.” We are also informed that the draft of this bill has been sent to the states to solicit their views on the provisions of the bill.
What is distressing and incomprehensible is that the Ministry of Women and Child Development is seeking to “protect” children from the law which now protects them. Talking of twists of fate, this initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development should take the cake for exposing children to psychological and medical dangers which they are too young and immature to handle by themselves.
On the one hand, society is struggling to contain the spread of HIV – AIDS which is spread primarily through sexual activity, mostly of an immoral kind. Instead of reinforcing the general efforts to reduce the spread of AIDS, the Ministry of Women and Child Development is actually perpetrating the foolishness of reducing the legal age at which children should indulge in sexual activity – whether penetrative or non-penetrative.
It appears that the bureaucrats who infest the Ministry of Women and Child Development don’t have a clue about the purpose for which the Ministry was set up in the first place. Instead of protecting women and children, these benighted bureaucrats are actively seeking ways of placing women and children at risk of serious medical and moral harm by proposing inane laws such as the one to reduce the age of sexual activity for children.
The Law Minister, who claimed that he was not aware of the bill, sent to his department, has spontaneously declared that: “twelve years is anyway not a proper age for a sexual act.” Let us hope that the Law Ministry will consign the draft bill to the dustbin where it rightly belongs.
What is of concern to the citizens, however, is that a Central Ministry has devoted so much time and effort (at the cost of public money) to concoct a bill which, prima facie, is not only undesirable for the children of this country, but which is gravely injurious to the moral fabric of our society. Do these dullards even know the social and cultural consequences of their misdirected enthusiasm?
It seems that the denizens of this Ministry have nothing constructive to do, so they are indulging in legal pyrotechnics to while away their time. According to the news item, the bill proposes to introduce a gradation in the age of consensual non-penetrative sex – 12 to 14 years and 14-16 years to replace the existing minimum age of 16 years for consensual sex. They are relying on standards which have been set by other countries, especially the USA, where the age of consent is between 16 and 18 years, depending on the state of the union. In the UK, the permissible age has been set at 16 years. But why on earth does the Ministry of Women and Child Development consider it necessary to compete with these standards which are already a sign of the moral decadence of those societies?
The point needs to be made that the very approach of the Ministry is seriously flawed because it is seeking to “decriminalise” (that word again!) actions which are undesirable both for the individuals concerned as well as for society, as a whole. As a matter of fact, the government simply does not have the administrative or policing capacity to prevent sexual activity among its citizens, whether children or adults.
Neither does it have the ability to detect private consensual sexual activities and to arrest those who are infringing the laws of the land. Proposing legislation which obviously cannot be implemented is like providing a blind giant with a spear knowing that he will not be able to wield it correctly. The proposal of the Ministry of Women and Child Development can only be described as an exercise in futility.
On the question of “decriminalisation” which seems to have become a hobby horse within government circles, there needs to be a serious re-thinking among our bureaucrats and politicians about the “purpose” of law in our society. Laws have always been considered to be legal and moral signposts for the citizens – to let them know what is conducive to the common good of society and what is disruptive of harmonious societal life. No government in the world, however powerful, has ever been able to “enforce” the law. Governments depend on the goodwill and the co-operation of their citizens to maintain harmony in society. We have to remember that one of the bedrocks of a democratic society is that government carries on “with the consent of the governed.” Once a government loses the trust of its citizens, it is doomed to extinction. In the ultimate analysis, power resides in the people and can only be exercised with their consent. However, (enlightened) citizens are aware that laws (and rules) are necessary for the peaceful and harmonious life of a society. Even in a family, there is recognition of the need for a framework of rules to guide the life of its members. Without laws to guide us, we will soon descend into chaos and anarchy.
Laws are intended to “raise” the moral standards of the citizens; not to cater to their base instincts. In this context, the over-enthusiasm of the Ministry of Women and Child Development to “decriminalise” certain immoral activities among children appears to be a complete inversion of the true purpose of the law. What is of grave concern to the people of this great land is that the present proposal of the Ministry is not an isolated instance.
It comes on the heels of previous attempts to “decriminalise” activities which are clearly immoral and harmful to the integrity of society. There have been moves to accommodate prostitution and treat it as an acceptable form of commercial activity; overt homosexual activity has been sought to be treated as “normal” in spite of all the psychological and medical evidence to the contrary. The use and distribution of narcotic drugs has been treated with kid gloves simply because the government machinery has been found to be incapable of controlling it. The argument seems to be: if the government cannot control it, then let it be “decriminalised.”
The trends are ominous indeed. Society is on the downswing on the path to perdition. Instead of reversing these trends, it appears as if the government is keen to hasten its progress. This does not augur well for the country or for the integrity of our society. It is time that the citizens unite to make their voices (of sanity) heard above the din and cackle of the bureaucratic inanities which dominate the corridors of power.
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Idioms, etiquettes and hypocrites
By Astrid Anne Pinheiro
English, as we know it today, is a product of different cultures and invasions. The Normans, the Saxons and the Celts have left their imprint on it. Not to be undermined were the Nordic, the French, and the Roman people. As the language grew, it took on words from American languages, African, Swedish and Hindi too.
These cultures have made their mark on the English idiom a rare but confusing linguistic device. Let’s take “breaking the ice”. It owes its origin to a Norwegian custom when two strangers met for the first time, a block of sold ice was placed between them. Each was given a chisel to break the ice and the two would hug and start talking only when the ice was broken down to the final iota. And then they would be friends such good friends, they would share meals and stay over.
But what if one crossed the decent limits of friendship? The Norwegians had a remedy for that too. They would serve the guest an ice cold shoulder of lamb for breakfast; which was an indication to depart. The idiom “cold shouldered treatment” arose from this. Well, the Norwegian were friendly, but other Scandinavians, well perhaps, not that much. It was a tradition to place a bone outside one’s doorstep, which served as an indication to quarrel. Therefore, the idiom, “a bone to pick.”
Enmities don’t last forever. There’s a right time to end them. And the best way to get rid of the old grudges and mend fences was to bury the hatchet. Incidentally, this is still done in parts of Mexico. We’ve spoken of relationships so what about etiquettes and manners?
When a girl was to be presented for the first time at a play, it was ensured that she wore nine different items of clothing. Perhaps that’s why we are “dressed to the nines” and, of course, she had to restrict her speech too.
Speaking too much was frowned upon as “nineteen to the dozen” A tea party was another major event for the lady of the house. Naturally she was nervous and fumed and ordered her maids and butlers around.
Well that’s so much for relationships and etiquettes. How about those double talking hypocrites – they certainly ‘have their own axe to grind.’ This originates with the English blacksmith. The story goes that a man had once asked the blacksmith to demonstrate how his fathers’ grindstone worked and only after that produced the axe he wanted to sharpen. Well, we all “blow hot and cold” with each other sometimes. Having an “ace up your sleeve” is really valuable in today’s cut-throat and competitive society, where everyone seems to want to “upset your apple-cart.” For hypocrisy, corruption, and notoriety we have “wolves in sheep’s clothing” everywhere – but it its important to separate the sheep from the wolves. That is to know the good from the bad.
Well, I’ve done quite enough research on this topic and I think it’s time to “throw in the towel” But I assure you, I haven’t hung up my boots as yet, I should be back on this column again with something else.
