The brutal killing of a woman in Soibug Budgam by a carpenter and death of an elderly person at an old age home in Srinagar abandoned by his family reports during last fortnight in Kashmir shows that while the social crimes are rising unprecedentedly in Kashmir, morality in the traditional family system is also coming down to a new low in Valley. Though the onus of keeping vigil on rising social crimes and finding ways to curb them lies on police but irrefutable fact is that social reforms are more important than the social policing for restoring the pristine glory of the traditional social security system in Kashmir . By all standards of understandabilities abandoning an old aged relation shows the cracks developing in otherwise harmonious relations between the youngsters and the elders of a family in the fast changing family system in Kashmir Valley. While the killing of a young woman and dumping her body parts at several places by a Kashmiri carpenter in the vicinity of Soibug area of Budgam district is an issue of security and safety of women in Kashmir, the death of an old aged person abandoned by his family shows the intensity of the increasing disrespect youngsters show towards elders in Kashmir. By all standards of human understandabilities the onus of taking corrective measures lies more on civil society groups and religious clerics and less on police entrusted the responsibility of investigating the social crimes and punishing the perpetrators of heinous social crimes through a well defined social justice delivery system. The shocking incidents emanating from the Budgam district show that both the nature and magnitudes of the social crimes and as well as the breakdown of the traditional family system have taken an ugly turn. While the onus of controlling the social crimes lies equally on police, the civil society groups and the religious cleric, the responsibility of restoring the emotional respect for elders in the fast changing family system lies only on civil society groups and religious clerics in Kashmir.
“Though people criticising police for it’s laxity in actions against the criminals striking at will day in and day out in different parts of Kashmir have the right to question the role of police in curbing social crimes but ultimately the unprecedented rise in criminal tendencies among the people is an issue which by any standards of understandabilities can’t be resolved without a vigorous public campaign jointly by the civil society groups and religious clerics against rising social crimes across Kashmir”.
The incidents witnessed in Budgam district show that changes in the behaviour of the people have changed both the scenario of social crimes and as well as the traditional family system in Kashmir. Vulnerability of women to attacks from men and increasing isolation of elders in the fast changing traditional family system throw up new challenges to both the civil society groups and as well as religious clerics in Kashmir. Though people criticising police for it’s laxity in actions against the criminals striking at will day in and day out in different parts of Kashmir have the right to question the role of police in curbing social crimes but ultimately the unprecedented rise in criminal tendencies among the people is an issue which by any standards of understandabilities can’t be resolved without a vigorous public campaign jointly by the civil society groups and religious clerics against rising social crimes across Kashmir.
