Letters to the Editor: Child safety must be nation’s priority

Child safety must be nation’s priority

India has about 480 million children under the age of 18 years. Being the supreme asset of the nation, they need appropriate attention and support to grow well so they can be engaged usefully to serve the country in the future. We have both an obligation and a duty towards them. Their holistic development should be of great concern in their own interest and in the interest of India. The editorial 'A landmark judgement for child safety' published in your esteemed daily on September 25 has rightly said that the Supreme Court ruling that watching child pornography over the Internet even without downloading constitutes a punishable offence under the POSCO will definitely strengthen the law to protect children from sexual abuse and online predators. Needless to say, the photography on social media and its effect on children and society has become an alarming issue today. The Rajya Sabha Ad-hoc Committee has also felt deeply the need to strictly enforce the law. It may be mentioned here that just a few decades ago, pornography was something that was, for most people, hard to come by. Even for someone growing up in a city like Guwahati in the 80s and 90s, pornography was still a faraway thing.

The most striking change is the sexualisation of our society, which has brought in pornography everywhere. Most of the bookshops are full of such magazines. Telephone-based pornography is available nowadays. We don't have to go out to find porn videos and images. It comes to us to our home, with complete privacy in our computers, laptops, and smart phones anywhere. Even children and so-called modern mothers enjoy porn nowadays. Pornography, mostly child pornography, is a serious problem that is causing immense harm to the healthy growth of the children. It is a cancer in our society. Without doubt, child porn is killing us. We need to fight against it. It is heartening to note that the highest court of the country has suggested the Union government seriously consider bringing about an amendment to the POSCO for the purpose of substituting the term ''child pornography'' with "child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM) by way of an ordinance in order to reflect more accurately the reality of such offences while compelling social media platforms to report such content to the IT authorities, NCPCR, and law-enforcing agencies, failing which necessary legal action will be initiated against them.

As responsible social beings, we must acknowledge its perverseness in our civilised society, and common citizens, particularly parents, must be well aware of the historic judgement of the Supreme Court regarding child pornography and must try to live and raise their children in an environment free from evils like pornography. There is a need for professional counselling to help deal with pornography addiction. Now, what we need is the spontaneous collective cooperation of all sections of people so that we can get to deal with this major social problem effectively. A well-educated civilised society cannot allow its most precious asset to be victims of all kinds of abuse and exploitation at the cost of the wild pleasures of a section of people.

Iqbal Saikia,

Guwahati.

Assam lags in per capita income

Economic growth in India is unbalanced, with rising inequalities and concentration of growth in a few urban areas. This is especially visible since the economic liberalisation in India since the 1990s. The issue is closely examined and flagged by a new working paper titled “Relative Economic Performance of Indian States: 1960-61 to 2023-24,"  published by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). It reviews the trajectory of Indian states in terms of their relative weighting in macroeconomic terms and the economic well-being of their people. It focusses on the states’ share in India’s gross domestic product (GDP) and their relative per capita income (compared to the national average).

The relative per capita income of states such as Assam, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal has declined since their 1960–61 levels and is now far below the national average. Assam’s GSDP growth is commendable, compared to many other states, in the last two years. But in per capita terms, Assam’s per capita income is just above Bihar and Jharkhand in 2023–24. Assam’s per capita income, at current prices, as a percentage of national per capita is 73.7, which makes Assam one of the laggards.

Amar Bhuyan,

Kenyapatty, Nagaon

Quad success

China's aggressive posture has consistently threatened peace in the Indo-Pacific region. India, due to its proximity to China, has faced quite a few challenges from the latter. It is a matter of pride that New Delhi is looked upon by other countries to be their firm partner on global platforms to tackle Beijing's economic and military prowess. The description of the Asia-Pacific region as Indo-Pacific specifically highlights India's growing active participation in the region. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) is one international forum that glues four friendly countries to one another. The United States, Japan, Australia, and India initiated the Quad to keep China on its toes.

 All these nations are keen to usher in a free and open Indo-Pacific region, diminishing the influence of a marauding Beijing. The four have been able to sustain a momentum that no country can ignore. In the fourth in-person Quad summit at the US' Wilmington, leaders of the four countries underlined the importance of shared democratic values that have kept them together. Issues of health, security, climate change, capacity building, and technology occupied the leaders' attention. More importantly, India is emerging as a "leader" of the four, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proposed to host the next year's summit in New Delhi in 2025. After the group was upgraded to the ministerial level in 2019, an augmented sense of purpose has driven the four nations. It can only grow stronger from here.

Dr Ganapathi Bhat

gbhat13@gmail.com