THERE’S no denying the fact that Pakistani society has gradually earned the notoriety of the ever-rising social crimes despite the fact that there are many God-fearing people in the country. Be it corruption, justice, or moral standards, the world ranks us the worst. The question is why this is happening when we have an established policing, prosecution and justice system. Criminals are being punished and the prisons are full to their fill but still social crimes are going beyond control. Even the universities and other educational institutions are not safe. There have been reports of alarming social, moral and ethical crimes in the institutions of higher learning.
American society claims that if an individual has graduated from their university, he would be a responsible and morally strong citizen and this must be the end of our teaching that a university graduate must think twice before indulging in any of crimes against society. But this very objective of education is neither being targeted nor achieved and so even the highly qualified individuals are committing crimes against society which makes the saner elements feel utterly disgusted and shameful. Moreover, the advanced societies of the world induce moral and social values in young minds from the school-level education through a continuous process of education so that when the individual grows up, he is morally responsible for his duties and knows his rights.
Unfortunately, in our education system, this moral training has not been as emphasized as it should have been which makes our youths vulnerable to the temptations of social evils. Good moral training from the very roots of the individuals helps generate responsibility, accountability, honesty, loyalty and empathy to create a well-integrated social setup that has the capacity to control social evils by default. Consequently, moral bankruptcy is the major cause behind almost every social evil. It is believed that a morally strong person is better able to control his criminal instincts than law and punishment. Our educational system especially needs to be cured through inculcating the moral values among our young people and the people at the helm of affairs must ensure that job ethics are being observed to the letter and spirit.
Besides strengthening moral accountability, we have a dire need for pure and genuine research to find out the psychological and socio-political causes behind crime. It should be discovered as to why the person who is supposed to save the people from crime and be a supporter of moral policing becomes a bold and bitter perpetrator of the crime. There have been a variety of heinous crimes against children, women and the elderly but nothing has been done to find the psychological or social reason working behind them and as a result just after the bantering of a few days on social and mass media, everyone returned to the same old routine of socio-political indifference.
Educational institutions are the most prestigious training places and need to ensure and encourage strong moral values because these are the breeding grounds for healthy new generations who are supposed to run the country at least for 30 to 40 years. This sensitivity of the learning grounds needs to be efficiently dealt with. We, as a nation, have always employed quick fixes, for example, shutting down mobile services or threatening and intimidating the people. This may work as a short-term or quick-fix solution, but it fails to cure the social evils for a long-lasting time. Even now some people are stressing gender-specific universities and the hanging of the people involved under such a system whose own credibility is questionable.
Crimes take place in the advanced societies of the world, but moral and social Policing keeps them under control. Job ethics are followed to the full and sustainable research is always on the go to cure the society of social evils. Instead of closing the institutions or barring a few individuals from here and there, one must go to the real causes behind the scenes. The standards of honesty, responsibility and morality must be ensured by the saner policing or by the tested and tried individuals. Moral accountability objectives must be ensured through our education system as well as the social system.
Outside the educational system, we may establish a chain of community centres that may help people solve their issues at the social level through constant counselling and social community support. Full enforcement of job ethics can work wonders in the cure of social evils. If Pakistan needs to save the future of the next generations, we need to make concerted efforts to develop a sustained socio-political and moral regime more than legal punishment. The legislators must come up with laws and measures to deal with the perpetrator of crimes with an iron hand. Side-by-side, they must ensure that the social and educational system is helping create and develop the moral and civic side of the learners.
—The writer is a Professor of English at Emerson University, Multan, and has a vast international exposure.
Email: zeadogar@hotmail.com
