Describing recent atrocities against women and girls as "worrisome" and "shameful", Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said merely bringing a bill to deal with the problem will not suffice and political will is required to eliminate social evils.
He said normally girls are told to be careful when they go out, but the time has come to caution boys.
"Recent happenings here and there, of social discrimination or gender discrimination or atrocities against our girl child, they are really worrisome. We should tackle those issues in an effective manner, not by bringing legislation," Naidu said at a conference organised by FICCI here.
"I have often been saying that there is a weakness in our country, in our system, that (whenever) anything happens, people say 'bring a bill'," he said.
He added that political will and administrative skills are required to kill the social evils.
"Normally in our society, we start telling our girl child, (be) careful, come back before sunset, but the time has come that we have to caution our boys," the vice president said.
What is happening is "shameful", he said.
"You get reports in newspapers, father raping daughter, teacher misbehaving with a student, a student misbehaving with a teacher. There are aberrations, but we must see to it that these values and this respect for women, they are taught in the beginning itself," he added.
He said the need of the hour is to impart value-based education, and stress should be on inculcating values such as patience, honesty, respect, tolerance and empathy.
Naidu also emphasised that education at the primary level must be mainly focused on the mother tongue as it is easy for students to grasp.
"(There is) nothing wrong in learning English. It is also required. But foundation must be laid in the mother tongue. We must revisit our policy," he said.
He also said that yoga should be part of the educational system, asserting that it is not a political or a religious practice.
Speaking about the economy, Naidu said it may be experiencing a "temporary recession" but it is doing better than economies of other nations.
Reports indicate that if the stakeholders work together and perform their duties, then India will be the third largest economy in the world, he said.
Naidu said though India has seen a dramatic increase in the capacity of its higher education sector over the last two decades, reports suggest that there has been a decline in employability of the country's graduates.
This is a cause of great concern, he said.
