Every society needs laws, rules and regulations for cultivating and governing a civilized mass.
However, irrespective of how well thought and researched any legal convention is, at times laws and social conventions might feel like just a burden or rather an imposition.
This is not to say, we need to do away with law-making and lawful societies altogether, but rather to instill or probably restore the thought that what feels right in your heart, mind and soul shouldn’t need legal nod of yes!
Same-sex Relationships:
Illogical norms in the society are just enough to kill the souls and happiness of homosexuals every day. So, at least the laws should be in their favour, to legally protect them from people with sickening mentality.
Age Parameters:
If you are a man in India, you can vote from 18 years onwards, get married after you turn 21 but you can indulge in alcohol consumption only after you turn 25. Does. Not. Make. Sense. And same goes for you if you are a woman, except you are deemed fit for tying the knot two years before your male counterparts!
Reservations:
The only cases where reservation is justified are the ones that guarantee opportunity to talent, skill and aptitude. It’s heartbreaking to see undeserving ‘reserved for’ people conveniently getting ahead on professional or academic front while the deserving ‘general’ counterparts figure ways to do the same.
Protests:
Though there is no act that dismisses ‘peaceful gathering of people without arms to express protest over anything’, yet often such groups are targeted upon by ruling politicians in the name of ‘threat to social harmony’.
Prostitution:
Sex workers have no identity, not by their choice but by law. Their lives, already filled with innumerous social stigmas, are devoid of any legal protection, more or less. Their profession often comes in the way if they try to claim even the most basic human rights.
Countless Taxes:
If you go out to dine, your restaurant bill will comprise not only the bill for the food you ordered but also VAT, Service Tax and often Service Charge. This is just one example of different kind of taxes that are levied on a regular basis on the citizens. The list of taxes is long, and we would find it justifiable only if the money, taken from us, reflected in the country’s development and not the luxuries of politicians.
Many other laws related to adultery, divorce, powers of security groups, etc, are equally illogical and suppressing. The problem is not just with the laws, that are visibly outdated, but also with the ones that are so unclear that they are often twisted and wrongly used. Adding to them are the hate-worthy social conventions in our largely patriarchal society that curbs people’s right to just be.
India, our motherland, is an independent country but the sad legal conventions do not let us to feel so. Untill we do away with them, we won’t be truly free.
