Are We Becoming a Deviant or Violent Society?

ALOK K. SHRIVASTAVA

This title may sound a bit awkward after the recently concluded and subdued Labour Day celebrations and the successful electoral hyperactivity involving a few national parties vis-à-vis regional outfits or conglomerations in five states. But it does reflect the ripples emanating from the nuances of current social reality.

May Day or International Labour Day

May Day has been observed in almost 70 countries since 1 May 1890 to honour labour movements, workers’ rights, and the historic struggle for an eight-hour workday. It commemorates the Haymarket riots in Chicago in 1886, when labourers joined protests for better conditions in farms and factories. Not only are global parades and demonstrations held, but the sacrifices and contributions of the labour class across the world are also recalled.

International Scenario

May Day marches have emerged as some of the most organised international attempts associated with social deviance. It may, nonetheless, be noted that widespread protests against landlords and factory owners across Europe during the Industrial Revolution were the actual precursors to May Day celebrations. Such deviant acts were effectively used and exploited by thinkers and activists like Karl Marx, Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, etc. These were further intensified by the involvement of a much wider spectrum, including V. Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Fidel Castro, etc.

May Day & Related Events in India

In India, it was organised for the first time on May 1, 1923, in Madras by the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan under the leadership of Communist leader M. Singaravelu Chettiar.

Gradually, holidays have been declared on May Day to uphold the spirit of international labour movements. Such celebrations attempt to assert the principle of an eight-hour workday and oppose the nefarious practice of extended working hours with meagre pay.

Despite numerous labour enactments and reforms, the majority of workers still put in 12 hours of work with no weekly off across Delhi and the NCR. Payments released worker-wise by owners are often not fully disbursed by contractors and agencies. For instance, against an agreed amount of Rs. 14,000 to Rs. 16,000 per month per workman, each guard, security personnel, gardener, or safaikaramchari receives barely Rs. 12,000 per month. Undoubtedly, this causes distress, misery, and discomfort, often leading to social upheavals, as even basic health needs cannot be met.

Protests, demonstrations, and dharnas are therefore organised time and again. One recent example is a large-scale two-day strike in Noida and some other places two weeks ago.

To address the issue, the U.P. Government announced a health insurance scheme of Rs. 5 lakhs each for one crore labour families. The Chief Minister also announced special school and housing schemes for the wards of labourers.

Opposition parties, rightly, on the other hand, have argued that the state government is exploiting workers through new labour legislations and offering only flimsy assurances.

INDIVIDUAL CASES OF SOCIALLY DEVIANT ACTS

Such acts or misdeeds keep happening day in and day out under the umbrella of our socialistic pattern of society. The moment you open your cellphone, browse the internet, or begin reading a newspaper early in the morning, you are bound to come across many such incidents that may not only shock but also rattle your imagination. One refuses to believe that fair and minimum wages should be the right of those who toil longer than mandated; it should not be at the discretion of the givers.

Apart from the labour class, youth—especially teenagers—are increasingly becoming a cause of serious social deviance due to the emergence of new technologies and their rapid evolution.

My sample size is very small. It is confined to barely 20 deviant incidents spread over 5 to 6 days, covering the period from the end of April to the first week of May 2026.

(A) Rape, dacoity, and murder of an unmarried IIT graduate and IAS aspirant in Delhi by a domestic help. In this case, it is not that the 23-year-old assailant had a strong intent initially, but he committed these acts owing to heavy financial losses due to addiction to online gambling (now prevalent in almost all major towns).

(B) In another case, a 68-year-old director of an institute in Kerala has been held for sexual assault on a student in a train.

(C) In yet another case in Delhi, a woman advocate was assaulted repeatedly by her own husband. Despite suffering for many days along with her two minor children, she was reportedly refused admission in four hospitals.

(D) In Surat, a budding and hardworking dietician was killed by her unemployed husband. Her body was buried inside the house, and later a missing person complaint was lodged by him. He soon confessed.

(E) Murders and rapes are not committed only by men. Women too are involved. In two separate incidents near Hyderabad and Vadodara, wives used sharp objects such as sickles and kitchen knives to kill their husbands over trivial disputes.

(F) Similarly, several young girls and women in Delhi and the NCR are found involved in cajoling, prostitution, cyber fraud, and cheating, including fraud in the name of marriage.

Are these not socially deviant acts?

(G) Drug addiction cases involving budding or established artists and film stars keep emerging, though only a few come to notice. The late actor Sushant Singh Rajput was reportedly involved or a victim. Recently, some of his former associates were absolved after years of trial, while others remain suspects.

Big players from Dubai and South America behind such rackets are rarely caught, and even when they are, trials drag on for years. Salim Dola, a high-ranking drug peddler and associate of Dawood Ibrahim, has been extradited to India, but will it prevent such crimes?

(H) Delhi Police has organised “Drug-Free Lifestyle Through Sports” camps at de-addiction centres, schools, and JJ clusters. The idea was to engage youth and discourage substance abuse by building resilience and discipline through activities like tug-of-war, volleyball, arm wrestling, and running. (Such attempts are made across the country, but their impact remains limited.)

(I) Drugs such as opium and cocaine are openly cultivated in parts of the Northeast and hilly states. Authorities are aware of the locations and trafficking routes. Yet, these substances are easily procured, consumed, and often linked to anti-social and anti-national activities.

(J) Incidents of custodial deaths of undertrials apprehended for minor crimes continue. Many of these involve teenagers or young adults up to the age of 22. Due to lack of legal support or financial resources, cases linger. In a startling disclosure, 54 custodial deaths were recorded in Maharashtra alone between 2020 and 2023, most attributed to suicides.

(K) In a disturbing incident in a Madhya Pradesh village, a 70-year-old man was beaten, abducted, and forced along with his wife to drink urine after their son eloped with a minor girl. Though the act occurred in March, it came to light only later through a video.

(L) Unchecked violence in Manipur continues due to ethnic clashes since May 2023. Initially between Meitei and Kuki-Zo tribes, clashes have now expanded to include Naga groups. More than 25 people have died since the new government took charge. Recent incidents included the killing of two minor children. These clashes are often linked to arms looting, smuggling, and drug activities.

(M) In Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, during a birthday party, a minor altercation escalated into gunfire. Three brothers shot at three others over a dispute involving cake-smearing. One accused was later killed in a police encounter.

(N) A serving minister in Maharashtra has been sentenced to one month in prison and fined Rs. 1 lakh for assaulting an NHAI engineer in 2019. However, the sentence was suspended to allow time for appeal.

(O) A recent case involves a Delhi Police head constable who shot a 21-year-old delivery boy at point-blank range in Dwarka. The incident has taken a communal turn, with disturbing rhetoric used by the accused. Questions remain about how the service weapon was issued while off duty.

(P) Reports have emerged of affluent families hiring bouncers to control teenage children and restrict phone use. In one case, a 16-year-old girl reportedly threw household items from a high-rise building in defiance.

These are extreme cases of social deviance, often rooted in household dynamics.

Conclusion

These are only selected instances of social deviance. Government authorities, instead of effectively addressing them, often turn a blind eye or respond in a routine and superficial manner.

Who will bell the cat? Incidents have occurred in the past and may continue as long as society remains under the strong influence of rapidly evolving technology and artificial intelligence—the latest force knocking at our door.