By: Dr. Anamitra Roy

Violence is defined as disruptive or destructive behavior. The aim behind violence is to pose a threat or cause harm to someone. Previously, there were opinions about violence being regional. However, in today’s times the popular opinion is that violence is a global phenomenon.  According to statistics, it results in the loss of 1.6 million lives each year. And these numbers do not accrue from one particular country or region of the Earth. Thus, it can be said that violence is one of the leading reasons around the world for the creation of problems in the human civilization.

There have been efforts to study violence prone zones in the world. It has been seen that middle to lower income countries are usually more violence prone. Thus, many economists have linked violence to Economics. This is a modern concept that violence is just not linked to Behavioral Science.

Psychologists say that some people have difficulty in controlling their emotions. This makes them react to something violently. Now, the question arises that why is it that some people have difficulty in controlling their emotions. There are many social, economic and political reasons behind this. Just biological reasons do not give birth to violence always. Thus, if it has to be pointed out that why violence is there, then it has to be said that violence is here because of social, political and economic reasons.

Violence is such a relevant topic in today’s world because it can be linked to Physical Sciences and Social Sciences.

According to Rivara et al (2019) violence in its many forms can affect the health of people who are the targets, those who are the perpetrators and the communities in which both live. The biological effects of violence have become increasingly better understood and include effects on the brain, neuroendocrine system and immune response. The physical injuries that stem from violence have been studied extensively in this era. But more important in this context, are the mental injuries i.e., the injuries that are caused to the mind.

The scope of the problem of violence demands that attention be paid to primary prevention and not just treatment of the victims with secondary and tertiary prevention programs.

Across all countries, conflict, homicide, terrorism, genocide and other types of violence hinder human productivity and economic development. Apart from its human impact, violence imposes substantial economic costs on individuals, communities and nations.

Thus, the impact of violence has to be studied not only from a biological viewpoint. This also has to be studied from the economic standpoint.

Whenever and wherever, there is violence, there are losses incurred. There is one way to avoid this. The person who gets affected needs to fight against the people who are responsible for the violence. But a question arises in this context. Is it possible for every person to fight? The simple answer is a ‘no’. It is never possible for every person to fight. In the modern era, fighting requires physical strength. More importantly, it requires powers of different sorts. It requires money power, media power, political power and public relations power. Not every person in the world will be having these types of powers. Thus, ensuring safety is one of the most debatable and discussed topics in the modern era.

Ensuring safety is one of the toughest tasks that one can take up at this point of time. While discussing about how to ensure safety, not for one single moment, can we forget that this is the age of globalization. In this age, the whole world is one. There is not much scope for regionalism. Therefore, the violence that has been talked about here may arise from any source, from any part of the world. Thus, safety in this era does not encompass safety around us against the local sources of violence. To a huge extent, this word ‘safety’ also incorporates safety against digital violence.

It is believed by many in this generation that ensuring safety actually means ensuring education. It is only through education that we will be able to determine the sources of violence and then safeguard ourselves against them.

In the modern era that we are all living in, it is to a huge extent true that we need to ensure safety against the various sources of violence. But, at the same time it is also true that one individual has limited powers when it comes to ensuring safety. Thus, every human being in every nook and corner of this planet has to depend on the government or governmental bodies to ensure safety. The government has to exercise different methods in different types of nations to ensure safety. In a developing nation, one of the main reasons of violence is ‘roti, kapda aur makann’. Thus, in such nation’s safety means ‘biological safety’. On the contrary, in developed nations, safety means social, cultural and political safety mostly.

In conclusion, it can be pointed out that safety against violence is a matter of concern for all. Therefore, to ensure its presence in our lives, it is the duty of all to contribute towards it.