For the National Capital Region (NCR), intense narcissism is a sad reality. An attack on the frontiers or a Clinton or Trump may steal some attention once in a while, but for the rest of the time, managers of the NCR think it is the world itself.
Still, in education, rising prices, safety of women or even the mosquito menace, the region continues to degenerate.
Any hope after the December 16, 2012, gang rape of a paramedical student that this urban agglomeration would become safer for women and they would not suffer any more harassment, given the immense national and international anger and protests that followed and a large number of laws that were passed thereafter, has vanished.
Leslee Udwin, who made the BBC documentary India’s Daughter (banned in India), said: “Courageous and impassioned ordinary men and women of India braved the December freeze to protest in unprecedented numbers, withstanding an onslaught of tear-gas shells, lathi charges and water cannons, to make their cry of ‘enough is enough’ heard. In this regard, India led the world by example.
In my lifetime, I can’t recall any other country standing up with such commitment and determination for women’s rights.”
The teasing, stalking, molestation, humiliation and rape of women have only risen not just in the NCR but across the country. Disgusting voyeurism appears to have become an integral part of society.
Thousands of cases of sexual harassment and rape have been registered in the NCR; the number must run into several lakhs in the country. These are the reported cases, and the number would be staggering if one were to factor in the unreported ones.
On December 8, 2014, a woman was raped in an Uber taxi. The parents of the December 2012 gang-rape victim realised that nothing had changed since their daughter’s tragedy.
“Nothing in India has changed since December 16, 2012. All promises and statements made by our leaders and Ministers have turned out to be shallow. Our suffering gives them their moment in limelight. My daughter asks me what I have done to get her justice. She asks what am I doing so that many more like her get justice and I wake up to realise how helpless and trivial I am ... ,” her father said.
It is important that the NCR shakes off its cosy narcissism and wakes up to the needs of the whole country and humanity and works towards a world where each human being can walk with a sense of dignity. The condition of the Dalits and disabled is no better and the women in these groups suffer a double disadvantage.
Alternative perspectiveWe need an alternative perspective constructed through the prism of a moral and philosophical matrix which can begin work on all fronts simultaneously with a shared vision, whether it be education or workers’ grievances. It does not matter what domain of knowledge — science, social sciences, humanities or mathematics — one is talking about.
Not that any institution will lose its autonomy or distinctiveness, but all will be governed by an overarching philosophical and moral matrix. The purpose will not be served by introducing a chapter in Hindi or English (classes meant largely for sermonising rather than teaching literature) on P.T. Usha or Sindhu or Sakshi or on Stephen Hawking or Helen Keller; that actually is so instrumental and ornamental that it defeats the very purpose it is meant to serve.
We need to spell out the philosophical principles that would inform our educational agenda across the board, starting at the same moment in time.
It will be located in a faith in the innate cognitive and linguistic potential of children, teachers and parents, in equity and awareness of inclusion, ecology, diversity and the other.
It will involve a questioning of the normative and a complete restructuring of the physical and social space in which education would in future take place.
agniirk@yahoo.com
