“Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children”
-George Bernard Shaw
Not a single day go when in the newspaper there are no headlines relating to crime done by youth. We are talking about gender inequality, felony, sexual assaults, corruption, poverty, cyber crime, rape and what not, but on the other hand, we are ignoring the future of the nation. After considering the report and statistics youth portrays a dark-clouded picture for the nation because according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) almost 60% crimes are done by youngsters of age 16 and 18 that accounts for 28,830 out of 43,506 crimes registered against minors under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Special Local Law (SLL). The figures show a rapid increase in crime against youngsters under the age of 18 years therefore, some psychologists says that the basic reason is that children these days are not getting the social, educational and emotional learning which they required by their parents and teachers. There was a case where a child seen one couple doing sex so he find something new to try and had curiosity to learn so he try to rape a woman and after interrogating him he said that he wanted to learn this new thing so it is necessary for the parents and teacher to give proper education and moral values to the child so he can able to differentiate between good and bad. The 21st century has witnessed a sudden increase in criminal offence including rape, cyber crime and etc, the major reason behind this increasing problem which putting the future of nation into dark are:-
- Family is considered as the most crucial element in child nourishment which helps in determining the behaviour and nature of a child in future due to increasing occupational commitment leads to spend more time at work and limited their responsibilities towards child to educate on moral qualities. With this emotional bonding between child and parent become weaker. Whereas in the adolescent age lack of parental care and depression lead to antisocial behaviour due to which children indulge in drugs, crime and other unlawful activities at an early stage.
- Our education system is mainly focussed on academic lesson of mathematics, science, language etc for building their future career but on the other hand, they are lacking to provide social and emotional qualities which plays a crucial role in building the attitude of an individual. With this lack of teacher attention and responsibility which restrain the students from a tight academic schedule as a result teenagers easily get distracted from the subject and become a violent person.
- Due to the advancement of technology the use of cyber crime, online social media has been increased which encourage the youngster to experiment new things and create a negative attitude in the youngster.
- With the lack of moral attitude and differentiate between right and wrong they have no knowledge that which peer group is appropriate or not and using new advanced technology they attract to that peer group and due to which they also get addicted to the drugs with the negative attitude.
In conclusion, the continuously changing lifestyle, advancement in technology, the education system which is discouraging individual and moral development, less communication bond with parents and what kind of environment he is getting at the home and by neighbours lead to the youngsters to become criminal.
Crime conducted by the youth are theft, fraud, burglary, rape, harassment, unauthorized use of motor vehicle, possession of a weapon or stolen property, illegally consuming drugs and tobacco, doing criminal nuisance and criminal trespass, violating court order, violating curfew and traffic rules, providing alcohol to underage persons, fighting in a public place, cyber crime and vandalism after looking this crime list done by youngster everybody will be in shocked because what crime is done by an adult person that same is conducting by our young youth of our society at their young age so the question arises that if at this stage such dangerous crime is committed by youth at such a young age so what level of crime they will conduct at their adult age?
As it is said that “Prevention is better than cure” therefore preventing the youth from doing the crime is the best possible way to protect the future of the society. The crime can be prevented through rehabilitation programs, child welfare schemes, social service scheme, mental health scheme, employment scheme, providing education with practical knowledge, parents and teachers at the utmost should not be hesitated while giving knowledge relating to sex and other crucial matter rather than giving punishment and imposing fine through courts or judicial bodies because maybe in some cases it effective but in most of the cases it put anger in the youngster and more crime rate will be increased by youth.
The Future of the youth can be secured by providing them with the knowledge about the things they are curious about rather than ignoring it.
By: Sneha Sharma