GUWAHATI, May 6 � Senior journalist and an organiser of the senior citizens� movement in the North-east, DN Chakravartty has expressed shock at the growing violence perpetrated by a section of youths in the State in recent years.
Reacting to the incidents of vandalism resorted to by some youths in Sonitpur and Sivasagar districts in Bihu functions, Chakravartty rued that 60 per cent youths of Assam in the age group of 15-35 years were violent, irresponsible, incompetent and without any sense of honour.
Chakravartty said that in the 1940s, a student of Class X could single-handedly control a whole class and not even one per cent of the school students and less than two per cent of college students had tasted liquor or other intoxicant drugs. But 60 per cent of the college and private hostel boarders today are habitual alcohol consumers, he observed.
Chakravartty, who has been editing several newspapers since the last 25 years, has analysed through newspaper reporting that incidents of eve teasing and illicit relationships with girls, which was a rare phenomenon in the 1960s, had now assumed an alarming dimension.
Chakravartty said that earlier, village girls used to move out from one house to another even at 9 pm without any escort. It has now become extremely difficult for a young girl to move alone either in villages or in towns, he added.
Chakravartty attributed this degradation of Assamese youths to bad parenting, irresponsible neighbours and incompetent teachers without any social and national commitment. �It was because of this degradation in the Assamese society that corruption has assumed all-pervasive proportions and anti-national forces are creating havoc in the society,� he added.
Chakravartty also attributed the present rot to the failure of the political and social leaders in discharging their duties. He appealed to the elders to shake off their indifference and prevent the youths in their neighbourhood from committing mischief.