II

The Guwahati incident of mob going berserk and raping a teenaged girl for around half an hour before the police reached the spot has once again raised a critical question as to what is the level of security of women and children in our country. Though series of laws have been made in this regard, they seem to adorn law books only. It sounds hypocritical that on one hand we project equality of sexes in society and on the other hand brazen acts of brutality have been coming to light more often than before.

Most instances of children being sexually abused go unreported. The enormity of the statistics and the diversity of the gory incidents of crime question several socially accepted new and old norms and ways.

KAMALBIR KAUR, Ludhiana

III

One shudders to think whether this is the actual picture of modern India. It is more painful and regrettable to note the apathy and irresponsibility exhibited by the police, the media and the people. This is not the first time, such an incident has happened in Guwahati. Earlier, a tribal woman was stripped naked and paraded on the roads of Guwahati under the full glare of the public and TV cameras and crew.

In another incident in Gaya, when a person was being thrashed by a mob publicly, instead of helping the victim, the mediaperson went on covering the incident on his camera. It is indeed very regrettable that such incidents are becoming common in cities across India and that no one comes to the rescue of the victim. More shockingly, instead of coming to the rescue of the victim, mediapersons are more interested in covering the incident and displaying it as exclusive news.

SP SHARMA, Mumbai

Non-issue

This has reference to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s plea for transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab at the Northern Zonal Council meeting. In fact, the issue of transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab is not that important to Punjabis’ hearts, but there are other more compelling issues in the state like revival of industry to boost employment, preventing youth from drugs, female foeticide, poor health care at civil hospitals, and dismal performance of governmental schools. People of Punjab certainly do not want Chandigarh as a white elephant which will further erode state’s revenues.

B B GOYAL, Ludhiana

Mother of problems

We claim to be a leader of Third World countries but we have miserably failed to check the menace of over population. Various incentives initiated by the government have failed to fetch the desired results. China should be our role model for population control. Strictly applying the one-child norm made China achieve the impossible target. Poor people produce more children which adds to the miseries of the entire nation.

Fear of losing popular votes prevents the ruling party to come out with stringent laws to control the population. Even the two-child norm in India can show encouraging results. Middle class and upper middle class have no problem with this norm. It is the population hovering near the BPL which adds numbers to the population with each passing year. Education, awareness and availability of medical help and modern techniques of family planning in the needed areas can do wonders.