From 14-year-old to 24-year-old, the three girls who were stabbed recently were those attacked by spurned lovers. And, the punishment for rejection was aimed at nothing less than death, the more gruesome the better.
The three attacks that happened in quick succession over the last few days have stunned the city, more so for the motive than for the modus operandi.
Three young men, aged between 21 years and 28 years, unable to accept rejection from the girls for whatever reasons, took to violence. The most violent and gruesome of the three attacks was the case of a student who was killed by her own classmate. While there could be many theories as to what led to the end, the incident has opened up a Pandora’s Box of what is lacking in the social and educational milieu.
According to N. Rabindranath, a lawyer, the crimes are committed with full knowledge of the implications. “They know why they are doing it and how to do it too”.
Repercussions
“There is no value for life. Youth, especially students, do not wait to think the repercussions of such an act. A thought is not given to their own future, the sacrifices their parents have made to make them study.
Parents too think their duty is to make the children happy by buying them gadgets without teaching them the restricted usage of the same. Constant monitoring during adolescence is a must,” he says.
Though a blame game can be played between parents, teachers, and even peers, these very people say that each should complement the other for effectively grooming youth to prevent them from such activities. More commitment from each of these stakeholders along with changes in the education pattern are suggested to make students into more responsible citizens who resort to peaceful means for solving problems.
D. Srinivasan, psychiatrist, Kovai Medical Center and Hospital, says that education system does not cater to man-making.
“Moral science and life skills education have gone out the door of many colleges and even some schools. Value education should be in focus from Standard VII upwards. While a portion of the remedial and supportive function can be provided by peers and teachers, the major onus of identifying symptoms of deviant behaviour lies with the parents.
It is necessary to identify and correct such behaviour at an early stage,” the psychiatrist says.
Agreeing to the fact that parents do not play the role they have to, C. Priya, mother of a college-going girl and also a faculty, says that it is a drawback that parents are not able to behave friendly with children.
“We might be parents. But that does not make us experts in knowing the kind of stress and difficulty an adolescent faces.
A commanding disposition by parents is not going to make the adolescent feel free to discuss sensitive topics with them. I encourage my daughter to talk anything with me. She is even more open with her father. We also regularly communicate with her friends to know all is well with her and her peers,” she says.
Counselling
As a faculty, she says that there are a very few students who confide in teachers anymore.
Hence, the role of counsellors and counselling centres will only be a success if there is co-operation from students.
When parents cannot be accountable for one or two children of their own, a teacher cannot be made accountable for the activities of a class full of students, she adds.
