Opinion Young,urban and merciless

Jetley apparently wanted money to make a modelling portfolio and pay his bills. The extent of his remorse can be gauged from the fact that he took his girlfriend out for shopping,a movie and dinner that same evening after withdrawing Rs 30,000 from the victim’s account.

Crimes by the young in our major metros are becoming increasingly common. Figures in 2008 show that one-third of all crimes in urban India were committed in Delhi,Mumbai and Bangalore. And 44.6 per cent of all those arrested in 2006 were between the ages of 18-30. Delhi has the highest level of crime – last year it had more than double the average rate. And Mumbai which was considered a safe city has seen a number of senior citizens being killed in their apartments since 1999.

Better policing is clearly required : The Delhi police reported a drop in the city crime rate this January after it launched various measures including additional patrolling; Mumbai has similar measures planned. But this is not just a law and order problem but a social one.

India has always had extremes of wealth and poverty. In cities such as Mumbai particularly the sharp contrast between skyscraper and slum has always been starkly clear.

Yet we did not have the level of crime and brutality we are witnessing now. Magazine articles on the phenomenon in the past have attributed it to a combination of factors such as inadequate supervision by overworked parents and television.

Certainly we are living in an environment where luxury goods and an extravagant lifestyle are not just far more available than they were before but are being avidly projected and promoted through every possible medium.

The positive response to the Congress party in the last two Parliamentary elections has been read as a vote for greater sensitivity to the economic hardships faced by some in an era of liberalisation. It is time we pondered over ways of curbing the social fallout as well.