and moral rectitude. But what we are seeing now is beyond redemption. The fact that we are selling our own girls – our daughters, sisters, and nieces — is as worse as it can get.
Of course, it is moral turpitude. But it is also much more than that. It is not just a social crisis. It is crisis in the society that marks the beginning of the end for all of us.
It is easy for us to see the episodes that we have reported as individual aberration in our society; we can sleep at peace with the thought that some deranged man or diseased mind is all that it is about. But the fact of the matter is that it is a part of our social set up.
Not just that, there is something in our civil society and set up that forces people to take such drastic actions. In our increasingly hyper-commercialized consumerist society, there’s virtually no escaping the relentless sexualization of our girl child.
By all indications it is a relentless epidemic of sexulaisation of young girls perpetuated by exploitative economic and political conditions.
The shocking sale of girls that is taking place in this day and age reveals the impotence of civil society characterized by outworn institutions, obsolescent doctrines and discredited traditions, which are fuelling the decline in the social order.
The deterioration of the ability of society to exercise a moral influence has left in its wake a moral vacuum that deny the dignity of human life.
Efforts to eradicate this problem must proceed from and be reinforced by every level of society – from the individual to the community. However, they must not be limited to legal and institutional reforms, for these address only the manifest crime and are incapable of generating the deep-rooted changes needed to create a culture of dignity and not disgrace.
Indeed the inner and outer dimensions of human life are reciprocal – one cannot be reformed without the other. It is this inner, ethical and moral dimension which now stands in need of transformation and, ultimately, provides the surest foundation for values and behavior which raise up women and girls and, in turn, promote the advancement of all of humankind.
Of course, it is moral turpitude. But it is also much more than that. It is not just a social crisis. It is crisis in the society that marks the beginning of the end for all of us.
It is easy for us to see the episodes that we have reported as individual aberration in our society; we can sleep at peace with the thought that some deranged man or diseased mind is all that it is about. But the fact of the matter is that it is a part of our social set up.
Not just that, there is something in our civil society and set up that forces people to take such drastic actions. In our increasingly hyper-commercialized consumerist society, there’s virtually no escaping the relentless sexualization of our girl child.
By all indications it is a relentless epidemic of sexulaisation of young girls perpetuated by exploitative economic and political conditions.
The shocking sale of girls that is taking place in this day and age reveals the impotence of civil society characterized by outworn institutions, obsolescent doctrines and discredited traditions, which are fuelling the decline in the social order.
The deterioration of the ability of society to exercise a moral influence has left in its wake a moral vacuum that deny the dignity of human life.
Efforts to eradicate this problem must proceed from and be reinforced by every level of society – from the individual to the community. However, they must not be limited to legal and institutional reforms, for these address only the manifest crime and are incapable of generating the deep-rooted changes needed to create a culture of dignity and not disgrace.
Indeed the inner and outer dimensions of human life are reciprocal – one cannot be reformed without the other. It is this inner, ethical and moral dimension which now stands in need of transformation and, ultimately, provides the surest foundation for values and behavior which raise up women and girls and, in turn, promote the advancement of all of humankind.
