EVERY month 76 adolescent girls disappear from their homes in Kerala and a considerable number of them never return, revealed Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishanan during a current assembly session.
Balakrishanan was answering a question from P.C. Vishnunath, the youngest member of the current legislature. Balakrishanan added that 46 adolescent boys disappear in similar circumstances every month and that although the total number of missing teenagers during the past 12 months is 1,464, the police have only registered 882 cases. Thiruvananthapuram registered the highest number of cases and Kasergode the lowest.
In an alarming trend that does not seem to concern political leaders or other socio-religious activists, there has been a steady increase in the number of youths going missing every year.
Visual media prefer to omit this news except for sensational cases that involve celebrities. Missing cases are often appearing only on the pages of the print media, which too lacks interest in follow-ups as well. However, none of this is sufficient to address the issue and analyze it with an aim to find a solution to put an end to this undesirable and appalling phenomenon of missing youths.
The problem needs to be addressed in totality. What prompts these youths to leave their homes and who or what is tempting them? Sociologists have pointed out a critical difference between today’s adolescents and the adolescents a few generations back.
During the 70s and 80s, youths were more confident and less ambitious. The vast majority preferred to stay at home and planned a future within that periphery. Maybe life was less colorful but social and emotional security provided by such a life was quite high.
True that a minority, often persuaded by financial reasons, moved to industrialized cities and Gulf destinations in search of employment. These developments seldom caused any major changes other than predictable transformations to the prevailing social fabric.
However, the changes that shook our society during the last two decades have transformed it as never before. Just look at a photograph of a youth from 25 years ago and compare it with the present day youth. They are not only drastically different in their attire but their philosophy of life too is poles apart. The current generation is over-ambitious but unfortunately less confident. They are launched to real life from a thick pad of insecurity and immaturity.
Families no longer function as an organic unit to train and bring up children with value education and emotional maturity. Parents and children spend less and less time together. Meaningful exchanges are seldom taking place within the family.
Unfortunately, individuals within the family have become watertight compartments often coming together only to view soaps on the visual media. As an organic entity, the family is on the deathbed. The result is a young generation growing up with sky-high ambitions and very little maturity and self-confidence to back it up.
At the same time, an unreal world portrayed by the visual media and pulp journals are creeping into the minds of adolescents giving them a shallow confidence and false optimism.
They start dreaming and planning life as if it is a prolonged party of pleasures. When they are faced with the often rough realities of life they start thinking that the other side is greener and more comfortable. The underworld and their flesh-merchants are only too happy to hook and exploit these youngsters to their dubious advantages.
The parents who fail to instill a sense of value and a sense of reality to their children are the prime culprits in this dark drama of missing adolescents. Reckless and irresponsible visual media representations also play a role in making our new generation vulnerable to temptations of the underworld mafia.
Parents should find more quality time to spend with their children to turn the family into a functional reality rather than a mere shelter to live together.
Educational institutions and religious-cultural organizations should organize programs aimed at increasing children’s understanding and awareness of the world around them and the perils inherent in it.
Only the committed and coordinated actions of families, educational institutions and religions could thwart the diabolic plans of the underworld mafia and save our children from turning into easy prey for the flesh merchants, drug mafia and other darker forces.
