Of a shocking, growing reality in our midst
   Date :06-Oct-2019

 
 
Vijay Phanshikar :
 
“All I wanted for my niece was a young man who did not smoke or drink or drug. Of course, we did find a very nice person as per our condition, but that took a long, long time. It was not easy to find a suitable boy who fulfilled that condition. So many young people take to this or that addiction these days! That is so shocking!” - SUCH statements are heard more commonly these days than some years ago. Until say 15-20 years ago, only a small percentage of young people were found addicted to something undesirable. The unholy, unhealthy trend had begun fifty-plus years ago, but did not grow as menacingly as it is doing now. And that is truly worrisome, to say the least.
 
“How can we change this bad trend?”, a middle-aged person asked a few days ago as he accosted me at some celebration. He talked about his niece’s wedding last summer and shared his happiness that he really, really got a “good boy” for her. That achieved, he has now started thinking about what he can do to change the ugly social tide in which many young people are swept off their feet. All I could do was to wish that the man succeeds in his social endeavour, and I also promised co-operation in whatever manner. Yet, whatever he talked about was not something that could be swept under the carpet. ‘Loud Thinking’ has discussed this issue on countless occasions.
 
 
On most occasions, readers responded positively, sharing the concern, expressing willingness to “start doing something to solve the problem”. Many discussions, too, have been held on the issue, but no concrete solution has emerged. Most meetings end up only describing the situation, without offering any concrete action to change an ugly social trend -- of young people, boys and girls, becoming victims of this or that addiction. There could be many suggestions in this regard, including a ban on addictive substances, a stricter law to punish the addicts as well as the vendors, social boycott and the like. The best suggestion, according to me, is sanskaar in the traditional mould. Families must ensure that kids in the house get proper grooming in right values.
 
 
But sanskaar is not just telling the kids what not to do and what to do. Sanskaar is providing the kids an actionable template of good thought and commensurate action. And that can be done only if the elders in the family are serious about offering the right sanskaar to the kids. However, there is also another angle that we must consider. There are families in which some kids grow strong enough to resist temptations, but some fall prey. How do we solve this riddle?
 
The families give the same treatment and sanskaar to all kids. Yet, some grow up well while some go astray. How do we sort this out? Thus, there could not be a one-point response to the problem of addiction among young people. No society can perhaps eliminate the scourge of addiction totally. We have to put up with the menace. The only thing in our hands is to keep addiction to sensible levels. We will have to keep trying variously -- through legal law, social law, and moral law. And finally, pray of everybody’s well being -- beyond addiction.