QnA with Sri Sri

Q: How can we end crime against Women, particularly in metropolitan cities of India?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: How did you catch my thought? I was also thinking the same thing, how can we help women in the metropolitan cities of India. As I said, first of all we need to create more support groups and women watch. We have taken up one thing now, i.e., conducting happiness surveys. In this survey, volunteers go door to door and find out the main cause of problems in each home. Why people are not happy? If families are not happy, if communities are not happy, then violence increases in the society. That kind of social interaction, perhaps, will help. 
Stringent laws and courts are needed to punish the guilty, but that happens only after a crime has happened. Before that we need to create a big wave of awareness campaigns to stop crime against women. As I already mentioned, intoxicants are one of the main reasons. People who are addicts create problems in society. And addiction is because they are not happy. A happy person doesn't go in for addiction. Addiction is because they are not happy inside. We need to bring that sense of comfort and care in the hearts of people, for the people around them. I think we can think about a million such plans of how we can change our society, and how we can bring more togetherness, because we had this in this country, not too long ago. When we were kids, we grew up with ideals of Mahatma Gandhi. If someone gets aggressive in the classroom, everyone would look at him, 'Hey, you have lost it. You better get back to yourself'. This was the idea.

Today if you are aggressive, you are a hero. Those days, if you were compassionate, then you were a hero, then you would be appreciated. So, the ego or pride getting attached to violence and aggression is one of the causes of violence in society. And I would say, these violent movies our kids see, in this country and elsewhere in the world, also desensitizes them against crime. If you are shooting in your video games every day, you are shooting the ships, you are shooting the planes and you are shooting people, then taking a real gun and shooting doesn't hurt them; it doesn't even register as a crime in the mind. They become so thick skinned. 

That is why I would say, all these violent games should be done away with. How many of you agree with me on this? Violent games that the kids play should be done away with. They should be given more sensitivity towards life, towards animals, and towards people. Education and awareness can play a big role. Stringent laws on the political level are required. But also communities working together, and not just putting all the load on the government, will make a big difference.