At domestic level also the criminality has crept in so deep that every other day someone (mostly women) either ends her life or some other person does it for her/him. The categorisation of groups who commit crimes is futile as there is no clear cut age group to zero in on. However, discernibly our youth have gone several steps ahead of others. In fact the very foundation of character laid by the parents is weak enough to crumble even at the slightest provocation. It is this lack of proper guidance that has put Kashmir on the map of criminally worst areas in the world today. Murders have become order of the day, rape incidents have increased many times, elopements is commonplace now and more over it the trust level among the people has dipped so low that common Kashmiri has become self centred in all respects and hardly sees beyond his/her nose.
When acting collectively, sometimes Kashmiris act in frenzy than logical way. Last month a woman, whose husband had abetted her brother in abducting a girl, clamoured that some police officer had harassed her. The execrable part of it is that people took to streets without knowing and verifying the character of the woman that resulted in death of four innocent youth. Worst, some leaders raised a hue and cry which manifests their ignorance of the facts. And when this is the thinking of leaders, who in other countries run and guide the nations trying always not to hurt their national interests, what better can be expected of the common masses. Kashmiris as a nation have to think for their future in present so that the situation may not reach a point where there is no return. Being a society with strong family values (although it has suffered a great deal of late), Kashmiris must identify the loopholes in character building of their younger generation and try to plug them as early as possible. Religious education can be of immense help in this regard. Teachers have to mark black sheep among them who bring heaps of disrepute to their profession and devote themselves for the character building of the students who need it more than anyone else and who can arrest the trend of moral deterioration.
