Debate – An Ideal Medium to Create Social Awareness

Debate is an important instrument for spreading awareness among people whilst also helping to introduce understanding on the various issues in our society. This is a great way of ensuring participation of common people in the issues important to society. It is a platform where many important issues relating to different fields are discussed in length, churning out a solution of sort. Public debates are instrumental for developing consensus on contentious issues.

It is a broader form of argument than deductive reasoning, which only examines whether a conclusion is a consequence of premises, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case, or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion.

A healthy debate gives fair chance to each voice and view, be it one that comes from an individual positioned at a higher stratum of the society or a regular everyday person. It is a ground where each mind is opened to each other and ideas exchanged and arguments weighed, with a goal to arrive to a wholesome solution.

The Internet has brought about possibilities that were unimaginable prior to its coming. Today, with the push of a few buttons and clicks one can be virtually anywhere in the world. The Internet has made this possible, and with the growth of social networks online, debates have taken a new form. Almost everyone has access to the Internet today. This makes online platforms a very easy place to start a debate.

One of such online platform is halabol.com. Where anyone can start or participate in a debate. Recently, one Halabol team member has started a debate about whether having a male child really important in our society.

Indian society is greatly obsessed with having a male child in the family. This is a strange and weird phenomenon, the zeal to have at least one male child, creates havoc and many families keep making babies in the hope of getting one male child as if it was the only way to survive.

Most educated and very learned people also fall in this illusion and the exceptions are only a tiny minority of very elevated people who believe in having one or two children, irrespective of their gender.

This bias towards male child cause enormous damage to the basic fabric of our society. This factor has also created many derivative problems like India is going to be the most populated country in the world in coming decades and there is a certain segment in several areas where girl infants are simply killed immediately after their birth. Today if you analyze the demographics you will find that there are more men in India than women.

Many people participated in this debate and shared their opinions. Truly, online debates like this help create awareness among people and make them think about the issue seriously.

Suchi Garg is a member of team Halabol Team . She has written several articles for Halabol on different issues such as; animal welfare, social campaign, education, health, environment and youth affairs. She has participated in many debates on Halabol.com and also recently started a debate on whether having a male child really important in our society.