in order to
promote a just society we need better education that does not only educate the mind but the heart as well. Aristotle said Educating the mind, without
educating the heart is no
education at all
Our education system has failed to develop empathy
Namia Akhtar
The state is not a separate entity, it is not inseparable from the individuals that reside in it, in this aspect the state is the collective body of individuals and inherits the value of the people that reside in it. The state is a reflection of the citizens and if the citizens possess good values the state is most likely to be well governed. That is to say, the moral value of a nation state declines, when the individuals residing in it have corrupt heart or a depraved sense of morale. Therefore, should we blame the state for providing us with lack of justice, or should be blame ourselves for having low moral to such an extent that the state finds difficulty in providing justice?
Corrupt officials receive bribe because we give them, if all citizens refused to pay bribes the officials would have had no option but to comply. That is to say if we collectively oppose against social injustice, we are bound to find justice. And if we collectively accommodate injustice, we are bound to see injustice and if we collectively accommodate justice we are bound to find justice. Similarly, people commit crimes because of the social accommodation; certain crimes in the society are accommodated especially pertaining to crimes committed against women and children. The double-standard treatment of our middle-class pertaining to child domestic workers is that such household chores carried out by domestic child workers are justifiable for the children of the poor but extremely dangerous for their own children. Their children are viewed as children, but our maids children are viewed as adult workers. The child domestic workers step into adulthood from the age of six, whereas the children of the middle class do not enter adulthood even if they are first year university students. This hypocritical perception reveals our primitive and backward social culture that instigates violence, revealing that the moral order of our society has collapsed, because people even the educated middle-class support child labour. And these child domestic workers are made to work twelve to fifteen hours a day, seven days a week and are treated as adult employee rather than a mere ten year old or a twelve year old.
It is from these practices and the perception that people have towards people of a lesser class that violence breeds in our society. Violence towards children was always present in our society, the dominant narrative always used to be the housewife beating up a child maid, these incidents were not much reported since it always had social acceptance. Child domestic workers were always being abused and the middle class people justified these on grounds that they do not work hard enough. Bangladesh has seen many incidences where their employees have abused child domestic workers; one may recall the incident of Laizu Begum in 2014, the housewife who almost tortured her child employee to death. A 2011 study by Dhaka University Associate Professor Dr. M Rezaul Islam titled Study on the situation on child domestic workers in Dhaka reveals that 17 per cent of child domestic workers are sexually abused, while the family members of employers either physically or verbally abuse the remaining 83 per cent. The study also reveals that
child domestic workers are made to carry out
household activities like cooking, ironing, crossing roads and going to the grocery store and buy
daily necessities which exposes the child to danger. All these practices prove that as a society we are quite accustomed to raise our social status or elevate our pride by taking out on those who are weaker than our current position.
If the culture of the middle class is based on such primitive discourse, the incidents concerning Rajon, Rakib, Rabiul Awal and most recently, Raja Mia from Hajariba should thus come as no surprise as it part of our culture to inflict harm on others to elevate our sense of self. As a society we have done it before, only the nature of abuse was different. Only this time the form of abuse was too abhorrent to tolerate. Our education system holds the key to end this culture of violence, we need to change our education system to instill moral values on the mind of the young, and invest in re-educating the adult mind in teaching them the difference between good and bad. Our society is at a stage where people have a hard time distinguishing between good and bad. We need to build social awareness through workshops and seminars on making people understand these concepts, in order that they may change into mannered and civilized individuals. At the same time, the government also needs to take into consideration the other factor that instigates violence that is social inequality and frustration, often humiliation. Individuals who commit crimes engage in such activities to feel a greater sense of self-respect and to elevate their self-esteem. People involve in criminal activities because they might have been treated as inferior beings and nothing makes them feel more empowered than committing an act of violence that triggers fear in the society. This heightened
sense of fear causes other to respect them. These criminals go to their self- preservation mode saving their souls at the expense of their bodies in order to preserve their honor. Such individuals also experience inner-deadness and lack a sense of empathy through the harder experiences that they have e.g. the housewife who has vents her frustration on the domestic worker.
People resort to violent means to restoring their self-respect when non-violent means are not available through education or through a respectable job. Bangladesh lacks behind in terms of providing good education to people and the absence of good education has failed to develop us into good human beings. Good education is essentially important to produce good human beings and to reduce violence in society. An example by the government to indirectly aid in increasing violence is the imposition of 7.5 per cent VAT on private education tuition fees that would make education unattainable for some, who might resort to violent tactics to restore their honor.
In order to promote a just society we need better education that does not only educate the mind but the heart as well.
Aristotle said Educating the mind, without educating the heart is no education at all. Our education system has failed to develop empathy, since volunteering, service learning is not part of the curriculum. Nonetheless, as citizens we have a responsibility to demand for change, if we demand change the government would surely respond. Examples have shown us that government succumbs to media pressure. Thus rather than blaming the government, we must each take small steps into changing ourselves, reforming our lives, the government would surely follow suit. If our children see good values in us, they will be good human beings, if they perceive evil in us they are bound to be human beings of low moral values. Hence, if we as a society develop strong moral codes, injustice would not find a space for penetration.
The writer is a Research Associate of Bangladesh Enterprise Institute
