Jessore's anti-drug movement may be worth replicating but no breaking bones please!
Saturday, 13 November 2010
The Sankarpur area in Jessore city used to be haunted by at least two-three hundred motorbike riders everyday, for a shot, or a puff, or a sniff, of their substance of choice, peddled at the drug 'haat' here - located in several slums, alleys and even the graveyard! But the menace is supposedly showing signs of weakening since the advent of a 'social movement' against the drug culture. We are told, it was initiated recently by community leaders, including at least one police official and one politician, if not more. If this is true, as reported in a contemporary about a fortnight ago, it certainly does the patriotic heart a lot of good. It is not too often that members of these groups in our beloved country are found, and reported, to be involved in something positive. They do need to clean up their much-maligned image by projecting their good deeds in the media, so others may follow them as worthy examples.
The first call for a united stand against the sale and use of addictive substances reportedly came in the last week of September from a gathering at the Sankarpur Government Primary School compound. The initiators were quoted as saying, 'Get together and catch both the sellers and abusers of drugs. Break their bones! If their guardians do not cooperate, throw them out as well!' What murderous language for such a laudable cause! Be that as it may, weekly meetings are reportedly being held from then on, and house to house motivation is helping wean drug peddlers and abusers away from this terribly damaging culture and getting them into healthier lifestyles and livelihoods, such as selling groceries or carrying passengers on battery-run 'easy bikes.'
One hopes such awareness raising, coupled with productive employment, can really be sustained all year round as a joint endeavour of the community leaders and the administration - and not just to score points through some obliging media friends! Pardon the cynicism, but isn't too much love of publicity often found to be the prime mover behind even the worthiest of causes these days? After the sound bites are over and the cameras are gone, everything goes back to business as usual! We understand that this locality in Jessore had seen a similar anti-drug movement in 2004 and a 21-member committee was also formed then to monitor drug-related activities. Many were said to have been caught, beaten up and booked, which had reportedly reduced the menace.
Does that mean sparing the rod for drug-related felons is not a good idea, even though we claim to be a civilised, democratic country where the rule of law is supposed to work? That's not a very simple question at all in these times when one finds pickpockets being literally lynched, so-called dacoits brutally done in, and the most murderous violence descending on people - 'criminals' and innocents alike - every other day. Social and behavioural scientists could perhaps write many theses on the why and the how of so much brutalisation around us, why some people turn berserk enough to beat hijackers and pickpockets to death. But should the community not wake up to the horrors of such blood-curdling brutality? What's triggering this kind of behaviour in members of the public? It is at our peril that we continue to ignore such disturbing phenomena.
The first call for a united stand against the sale and use of addictive substances reportedly came in the last week of September from a gathering at the Sankarpur Government Primary School compound. The initiators were quoted as saying, 'Get together and catch both the sellers and abusers of drugs. Break their bones! If their guardians do not cooperate, throw them out as well!' What murderous language for such a laudable cause! Be that as it may, weekly meetings are reportedly being held from then on, and house to house motivation is helping wean drug peddlers and abusers away from this terribly damaging culture and getting them into healthier lifestyles and livelihoods, such as selling groceries or carrying passengers on battery-run 'easy bikes.'
One hopes such awareness raising, coupled with productive employment, can really be sustained all year round as a joint endeavour of the community leaders and the administration - and not just to score points through some obliging media friends! Pardon the cynicism, but isn't too much love of publicity often found to be the prime mover behind even the worthiest of causes these days? After the sound bites are over and the cameras are gone, everything goes back to business as usual! We understand that this locality in Jessore had seen a similar anti-drug movement in 2004 and a 21-member committee was also formed then to monitor drug-related activities. Many were said to have been caught, beaten up and booked, which had reportedly reduced the menace.
Does that mean sparing the rod for drug-related felons is not a good idea, even though we claim to be a civilised, democratic country where the rule of law is supposed to work? That's not a very simple question at all in these times when one finds pickpockets being literally lynched, so-called dacoits brutally done in, and the most murderous violence descending on people - 'criminals' and innocents alike - every other day. Social and behavioural scientists could perhaps write many theses on the why and the how of so much brutalisation around us, why some people turn berserk enough to beat hijackers and pickpockets to death. But should the community not wake up to the horrors of such blood-curdling brutality? What's triggering this kind of behaviour in members of the public? It is at our peril that we continue to ignore such disturbing phenomena.