Understanding to find a solution

The capital city last year saw a number of youth-related violence cases. From a school caretaker who was attacked to cops who were bashed up, and all the stabbing cases that followed, it seemed the youngsters involved in these activities were listening to a voice beyond reason, logic or sanity, even humanity.

What’s happening here? What do these alarming tales of youth turning haywire bode for our country – the so-called last Shangrila on earth?

Education is free but youth are dropping out of schools, substance abuse awareness campaigns are on but teenagers just don’t mind popping a few pills or pulling on a few drags of marijuana to get a kick, school-girls getting pregnant and then resorting to dangerous abortions in the Indian border towns, the list goes on.

What is the society doing? Unless one knows the root cause of the problem, no real-lasting solutions can be found. What is causing our youth to tread such dangerous paths? Is it poverty? Unemployment? Parent divorces? Peer pressure?

Or simply consumerism?

The government seriously needs to conduct an assessment study. Counseling youths or going to the other extreme and putting them behind bars are just interim measures. The cause has to be discovered to come upon a solution that will work.

Why don’t the police talk to juvenile delinquents? Why don’t parents talk more often with their problematic children? Is there a communication gap?

There are many questions but very few answers.

How many of us really understand the psyche of a young criminal? Not many.

Youth, once scarred, bear the guilt and brunt of their wounds permanently because they are the most impressionable. Prevention is always better than cure, as they say and to guide our misguided youth on the right track needs more than a condemning attitude or words of superficial sympathy.

(The writer is news editor of
 The Bhutanese)