In my humble assumption and opinion, the increasing trend of crime against children in the past few months is an outward visible sign of an inward degraded and demoralised society in which we are living.

The crimes of murder of school going children were all committed from ransom of huge amount of money in the case of Lungnila Elizabeth and Martin and Hubert to the stealing of a few tolas of gold ear-rings for a few dose of drugs in the case of Chinglenkhomba.

These episodes of killing children mercilessly often put question marks to the morale of our society where there is numerous organisations to cleanse the ills of the society.

Manipur is severely infested by the dreaded disease HIV. At the same time it is becoming a paradise for drug abusers and drug peddlers.

For the last three decades or so we have been fighting against the mentioned menaces relentlessly. We have got many hard-working and dedicated voluntary organisations, NGOs and Meira Paibis fighting for this cause.

But as the fight is going on and on, the number of crimes is increasing and the modus-operandi of the criminal is becoming more complicated in nature and is becoming more chilling and shocking at the ghastly act of the criminals.

An innocuous looking at the recent list of ear-ring snatchers from small children provided by the media to the public has inadvertently open up a can of worms of sorts that raises questions about the effectiveness of our society's 'war against drugs and alcohol. A quantum jump in the number of possible snatchers is a clear admission of the fact that the campaign has gone haywire somewhere.

Yes, we have got enough confession and 'Sengdokchaba' in the medias from the drug users and liquor vendors. Monetary fines are imposed and collected from the culprits from time to time and these 'Sengdokchabas' are in fact a big source of income for the newspaper firms these days.

When these confessions are made, when fines are levied then all think that it is all over and their days work has been done and feel happy for doing a good work. So associations, unions try only to get their names reflected in the confession column. But in real, using confession through the media as an excuse by the drug user to cover up an ugly reality is not the answer.

The mood question that arises is why did things reach such a pass that leave the problem of curbing drug and alcoholic addicts still a distant dream. It is easy to understand that a disjunction exists between the reality as it exist at the ground level and the rationale provided by the civil societies to control it.

So we can see in spite of much exhortation by civic bodies and goody-goody talk by long winded reformers of society and a certain amount of useful practical works done by NGOs to reform the physical and mental behaviour of the drug-users, things are seemed not in the right tract as yet considering the rise in the rate of crimes related to drugs.

But all is not lost and it should not be. The very outcry that is made whe-ther sincere or insincere from all quarters shows that things cannot be quite so bad as we imagined and there is still time and space to improve it or to bring back to the right track.

Though there is wisdom in combating the problem of drug abuse and alcoholism with drum beatings in the streets and making the offenders to 'Sengdokchaba' in the newspapers, the curative factor lies in the social and economic problems of the society in the deeper level or on the other side of the coin which requires serious introspection.

There should be a shift of society's focus from the retributive and barbaric to the corrective and humane measures of treating such drug-addicts which we treat as criminals. First and foremost thing for this is parental supervision and care of their children. In the formative period, no young person should get rid of parental supervision and care.

When a child first begin to group things together, it is advisable that the child learns differences as well as similarities. The child should know which is good and which is bad.

For example, basic among distinctions he draws is the division into 'good' and 'bad' which he makes largely on the grounds of what his parents do and say about things and people. Thus he may learn dirt is 'bad' because his mother washes him everytime he gets dirty.

He should be made to know that 'milk' is good for health while 'wine' is harmful. Whether a child graduates to correct thinking or wrong (prejudicial) thinking depends to a great extent on his experiences with his parents and teachers.

So the mother who is advocating the drive against drug abuse and alcoholism in the open street should see that her children do not fell in the wrong wayside in her absence. Reforming a society must begin with reforming our own home and family because charity begins at home.

There are questions of unemployment, which leads to frustration after college and university days in the minds of our youths. At the same time there is want of 'Role models in our society for the younger generation. These are ponderable for our administration or educators.

Unless we re-examine our policies, we will always live in fear. If we reconsider those policies and begin to change them only then we might start to dry up the huge reservoir where drug abusers are hatched.