A cry for change

IN OUR fight against crime and corruption, we have been directing our battle towards the criminal instead of the crime. We are diverting all our energy in checking and penalising the wrongdoer, in taking action after a crime that is committed.

However, we are not investing as much to understanding the circumstances that are pushing more and more people into crime.

A major cause for degradation across all sections of society is that some professionals today are disconnected from the fundamental purpose of their profession.

When a teacher tries to finish the syllabus instead of cultivating knowledge, when a doctor works only to administer medicine to his patients instead of healing them – the purpose of the profession stands compromised.

The human angle and the ethics attached along with the trade do not have much chance and it digresses from being a socially-beneficial venture to a profitmaking business.

In our efforts to bring about a change, there is a crucial dimension which we have often missed – building individual character.

We must raise people’s personal standards as they are the foundation of a society. Everything from the laws and their effective implementation, to the functioning of the justice delivery system – they all depend upon the morality of persons involved.

In fact, if individuals are empowered and responsive to the call of their conscience, we will need very little effort to sustain peace, harmony and growth.