When erotomania runs amok!

Juvenile crimes that stem from thwarted teenage love are on the rise across the big cities and small towns in india. The violent forms that jealousy takes have left social scientists worried, writes Anil Pandey.

Young Vijay Saini was enamoured with Radhika Tanwar. He followed her around as the class 11 student went for her tuitions. That she repeatedly rebuffed his advances, indeed publicly hitting and humiliating him on one occasion, did not deter  him. When she joined Ram Lal Anand College under Delhi University, he would wait outside the gate for her. However, her sustained coldness to his love and mingling with other boys got too much for him to bear and on March 5, 2011, the jilted lover shot Radhika dead in broad daylight.

Radhika's is not a lone example. Though they are not separately mentioned in the files of the National Crime Record Bureau, teenage crimes of passion are fast assuming alarming proportions. There are no discernible demographic or economic traits to the malaise. Educated youth belonging to high profile families in metro cities are also falling prey to such crimes of passion alongside people from small towns.Take for example the gory gangrape of a 10th standard girl in Bhubaneshwar on April 14 by nine boys, three of whom were her classmates.

The only common point is that most of the perpetrators are jilted lovers. Psychiatrists call it the delusion of love. In most such cases, the beloved is unaware of the admirer's feelings or does not reciprocate. The perpetrator keeps imagining that his feelings are returned. When the delusion shatters it causes depression and mood swings. In extreme cases, the admirer turns violent.

This violence expresses itself in many ways. While only a few take the extreme step of physical assault, many do not go that far but vent their frustration by maligning the girl over the internet and social networks. A Delhi-based teenager morphed a photograph of a girl who studied in his class and uploaded it on Facebook as revenge for her rejection. The boy has since been sent to a juvenile reform home. Since 2004, when the Delhi Public School MMS made it to the headlines, several MMS scandals have surfaced in Patna, Bhopal, Pune, Nagpur, Indore, Chandigarh and Allahabad. Even small towns like Moradabad and Shamli have made contributions. In most of these cases, teenagers recorded their intimate moments with their girlfriends and when their relationships turned sour they made the footage public.

The most obvious reason for the situation would be the immaturity of teenagers. Says Dr Manish Khandpal of Delhi's GB Pant Hospital, “Teenagers are not mature enough. They are unable to accept failures in relationships. They feel betrayed. This causes desire for revenge.” However, boys have always been boys. So why this spurt in crimes?

Psychologists and social scientists blame a variety of factors from the nuclear family structure to the internet explosion and movies and other popular media.

Hetukar Jha, a well-known psychiatrist from Patna, says, “This is happening due to a lack of moral education. Bihar is third in terms of juvenile crimes. Most of these cases are related to teenage love. Parents are equally responsible. When it comes to being sensitive and sensible, the entire social system has collapsed.”

Nuclear families also shoulder part of the blame. With the small family structure and often both the parents working, subtle changes in a child's psychology, especially during the tremendous emotional turmoil of pubescence, is often missed. Dr Kandpal says violent acts are often preceeded by typical changes in behavioural patterns. “The subject starts behaving in a very strange manner. He gets angry very often. He neglects his studies. He starts demanding more and more money,” he says. “Delusion of love is a serious issue. If parents notice such changes in their child, they should immediately consult an expert. The child needs medical assistance,” he adds.

Movies have also been blamed. The hero of a typical Indian movie does all that he can to woo the girl. He starts from eve-teasing and stops at nothing. Young boys take these heroes as their role models and thus cause a lot of trouble for the poor love interest in the real world. Also, internet has opened up a Pandora's box. As an adolescent struggles to understand his own budding sexuality, a sordid world of exciting possibilities is opened up by the net. There is practically no way of monitoring of controlling this for the parents, even if they had the time or energy to do it.

As social scientists and doctors ponder over how to curb this growing trend of teenage violence, sex-related crimes among minors continues to rip a hole into the very heart of this country's social fabric.