Can problems be solved by laws and legal systems ?

Many people think that laws and legal systems are the only thing that a nation should have in order to keep things in control. In South Asia, we frequently talk about laws. For example, we talk about the laws for women empowerment, child labor, terrorism, dowry etc. However, I personally don't believe only on the legal systems. What I think is that the laws and orders make sense when it applies to the region where basic needs are already fulfilled.

There is a saying - 'Hungry man is the angry man'. I absolutely agree with this statement. How can a law work if people are not certain for their daily foods, sufficient clean drinking water and shelters? We have made laws to prevent selling women for money. Is that working? Of course not! Hundreds of Nepalese ladies are being sold today to Bombay.

Moreover, we have made laws to prevent child labor. All we know that it is illegal to keep a child as a labor. But we forget when we return to our home. We are using them to clean dishes, wash clothes etc. No matter how educated the person we are, we usually forget such rules rules in our daily life.

The same pattern applies in case of terrorism. If a person is not getting items to eat, he could be easily influenced by terrorist groups as they offer a handsome amount of money to him or his family. As a result, he is motivated to carry out dangerous attacks. This is a ground reality we are seeing each day in our region, South Asia.

I believe no counties support dowry and all of them have made some forms of laws to prevent it. But we have witnessed its effect very frequently. In other words, people are not able to get married just because they haven't sufficient money to pay for the boy. After marriage also, many women are forced to do suicide just because their parents can't pay the money committed before their marriage.

These are just few examples. We have a bundle of such laws we are not working at all. The main reason is the lack of basic needs. If a person is not hungry, then only he/she starts thinking what a law is. The important question is not about whether laws are needed or not. The question is - How can we fulfill the basic needs of people so that the laws could be enforced ? People will be educated only when their basic needs are fulfilled and then think about their rights, the laws and legislative systems.