freedom at what cost

/Freedom (noun)-the state of being free or at a liberty rather than in the confinement or under physical restraint. At random, my iphone spews out 17 different meanings and states the origin of the word 900ME. Freedom entails both a negative and a positive relationship. Negative freedom means being ‘free from’ and positive freedom means ‘being free to’. Independence or license to do as one want is being promoted in a large way allover so that woman is brought to par with men.
This popular myth that freedom is what we need to give the woman is being busted in the lower strata of our society. It is disturbing to know that increase in economic independence is going hand – to hand with degradation of morals and complete breakdown of the structure. The scenario in rural Punjab is disturbing, sad and dismal. Girls as young as 10 or 11 yrs start working in the fields, or in cold –stores dotting the landscape or even as domestic help.
They are influenced by the media, swayed by glamour, pseudo-westernization and a desire to be rich overnight. The shackles of poverty are shed overnight by the daily wage –earners. Take a minute, to reflect on their lives, shunned from birth just because she is of the weaker sex, uneducated and forever hungry for love and yes, food (the basic need of all).She is scorned from the moment she is born and when she comes to puberty there is a sense of realization of the weapon she has ‘her feminity ’. These girls suddenly discover a weapon a ‘PASSPORT’ out of the hell-hole of poverty by bartering their innocence freely for money. These girls have no real sense of attachment or familial bonds, says Bibi Harmohinder Kaur, a social worker. She says that lack of emotional attachment or any kind of obligation frees them from any shame faced over this rampant prostitution which delivers them from poverty.
Villages in and around Jalandhar have been witness to an explosion of western influence due to NRI’S, competitive higher wages, affluence. Every person worth his/ her salt has a mobile phone (even if they do not know where the next meal is coming from). This increase in mobility is an aid to a downward spiral resulting in an increase of extra-marital affairs, setting up of rendezvous at sordid dingy places dotting the landscape. Lack of education, brashness and a burning desire to escape makes them fall prey to easy money. There exists a nexus in the villages where pimps scout these girls luring them with dreams of easy money and promises of bigger earnings. Overnight, easy money is such bait that they get sucked into this vortex not caring about the implications. Medical emergencies, pregnancies are terminated by OTC pills (thanks to rampant advertising) and also by the mid-wives for as low as Rs .100.Promiscousity, brazenness and the candor shown by these girls surprises and amazes one. This laxity in morals, spontaneity, and forwardness is present in them and can be pin-pointed to a psychological aspect as pointed by Dr Harshinder Kaur . She says, and I quote ‘Rebellion is at its peak, due to centuries of oppression and they are nonconforming to the hilt by hitting out via their feminity.This change in candor, style of dressing is done to hit back at the suppression faced by them in the one way possible by falling morals. They do not hold it a great value and when sex can be bartered to realize their dreams why worry? It is a tool traded, used for means. At the grass-root levels of Punjab this is what is happening where the pure get impure in the Land of the Five Rivers. It is estimated that these easy morals are leading to an increase of sexual transmitted diseases and Aids by a whopping 34 % every year in Punjab and this is not even counting the statistics from truck-drivers which infect the population.
It is important that one should realize liberty, freedom is in our mind. We need to reach out to these young girls by education and giving them alternative avenues of sustainable income. A change in their self-esteem is required by holding lectures, meets by prominent social workers who can educate them over the follies of debauchery, degradation. The gen-x of tomorrow does not care two hoots over this moral degradation, debasement or cheapening themselves. It is a point to ponder on why this moral corruption carries on unabated; or is it as it satisfies our baser desires we turn a blind eye……
Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it .George Bernard Shaw
Responsibility is the price of freedom. Elbert Hubbard.
Let’s constantly endeavor to stop this rot.