Academic Dishonesty

gs454236@gmail.com (Basil Labib) — Sun, 05 Sep 2021 11:50:44 +0530

Today is September 5th which is celebrated as Teacher’s Day in India on the birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, an eminent educator, teacher and the first Vice President of India. As Indian students reach out to pay respect to their teachers via various gestures such as feet embracing albeit digitally this year, I wish to take this opportunity to speak about a much graver issue in the Indian education scenario today.

It is not unknown how the past two years have been an agonizing experience for teachers in educational insititutes. It is commendable how they have adapted themselves to the rapid demands of the new online paradigm during the pandemic. But there is an elephant in the room that apparently nobody wants to address. The breakdown of conventional testing mechanisms have led to rampant academic dishonesty amongst students in the untested domain of online assessment which have been adopted largely due to the lack of a better alternative. The most common excuses given by senior students, even good ones are: “It isn’t serious” or “I’ll study later”. I am in a particularly qualified position to speak because I have been on that side of the computer screen, safely tucked away from the sight of that one poor invigilator who has to remotely monitor a pack of thirty or so tech-savvy teenagers and simultaneously ward off network and technological issues on their part. And I know how tempting and easy it is to be dishonest in such a setting.

What educators must see is the immense damage it is doing and has done to our economy. As I believe I have said before, this pandemic is about to draw to a close due to minimally effective vaccination campaigns and the populace is inching towards herd immunity. But the real damage of this will not be felt in the next year or so, it will be felt a decade from now when this academically deprived, skill-less workforce will be asked to lead the nation. What kind of treatment would we expect from the doctors of the pandemic who have casually copied material from all over the internet and passed assessment. Where is the passion to actually understand something and not spend hours watching YouTube resting assured in the belief that the project can be copied from the internet? The effort made by students is gone. There is no driving force except the fear of not getting credits which they are sure they can.

This is a frontier on which the government, educators and the teachers have been ghastly ineffective. Academic disparity exists and it will compound. Imagine the subsequent degradation of quality as junior school children now, who cannot read alphabets or perform basic mathematical calculations are asked to assimilate more advanced learning material. How will they cope? And more importantly, how will India recuperate from its state of lethargy and denial?

The Indian Sexual Taboo

gs454236@gmail.com (Basil Labib) — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 15:28:23 +0530

Recent unravelling of the Raj Kundra porn video business on online streaming platforms has raised many tantalizing questions on the effectiveness of the Indian judiciary. It is indeed shameful and comical to know that the judiciary is confused as to the definition of “pornography” and “obscene” and specific laws under which to prosecute Kundra and Co.

Why do porn industries flourish?

Leaving prosecution and dissemination of judgement to more able individuals than me, I would like to raise few points about the other side of the coin: The Indian porn consumer base. If Raj Kundra was able to lure financially compromised girls into creating obscene content and sell them for millions, then why did he succeed? Markets thrive where there is demand - indeed, the fundamental basis of capitalism. Pornhub yearly statistics reveal Indian consumers on the site has been on a consistent rise. And that is just one provider.

To Kama Sutra or not to Kama Sutra…

Try initiating a conversation on sex (or anything that has even a distant sexual connotation) with your parents and expect varying degrees of indifference, loathe or repulsion. Isn’t this a glaring contradiction at the very heart of Indian ideals? What kind of society are we that fail to show the maturity to acknowledge our identity yet feel tempted to privately watch strangers in sexual acts? What kind of precedence are we setting for posterity? What kind of environment that stifles conversation about an aspect of human life that’s as important as food or housing? Most people will shrug at these questions because they’re not “comfortable” and doesn’t comply with their mental model of the world (Don’t just nod along, it’s very difficult to assess one’s own self).

All the damage we don’t see

Our culture has encouraged us being tight lipped about our own sexual pleasures and desires. That has led to grown-up adults believing it is safer to consume obscenity in the privacy of our rooms than to garner social disapproval by acknowledging them. What we don’t see, in our myopic decision, is the larger, grimmer reality behind our insecurity. A base like India creates immense demand in the industry and we don’t turn to think for once the trafficking rackets and porn industries that we are feeding. Videos are virtually indestructible. What about the dignity of those girls? What we don’t see is the hundreds of Kundras operating today stashing cash in their foreign bank accounts, feeding on our desires and the helplessness of those girls. What we see is the bluish screen, the comfortable privacy and a pack of tissue nearby. And that to me is outright cowardice.

Can we do anything?

Markets are fed by scarcity of resources. Sex sells because people are unwilling to talk about it. To borrow from the 1998 Pepsi commercial, ye dil maange more.

I can seriously go on and on about the destructive and depraved nature of porn. Creating fantastical expectations from real sex and women. Patronising women. Creating unrealistic mental images for what a woman is like. One of the reasons of rising crime rates against women. You get the point. It’s a keystone demon in society. I strongly believe that once we de-stigmatise sex in the Indian mind (Not an easy task), people will turn away from these nefarious services and reach out to real people in the real world with a sound understanding of responsibilities and expectations involved.

Conclusion

All that being said, outlook of people are changing and that is a positive sign. We need more forums to voice such questions and enable more individuals to ponder about their rights, sexual and otherwise. And I hope the court can come to a sensible conclusion and hammer down sharply on Mr. Kundra for his lowlife ventures.