(This is the third and final post in my week of guest posts by female writers. Today we have a piece written by my friend Ankita Pandey who gives us her perspective on gender inequality as a woman living in India. It makes a great finale to the week.)
Today in the 21st century such a title doesn’t hold good for many. This is because nowadays almost all admit to the fact that girls are walking parallel to males in every field. However, the sad part is that in many countries and regions females are not given the same treatment as males. There are many countries fighting for females and their rights. The country where I hail from also has similar problems. I have grown up seeing things that were not right for women. Fortunately, I was lucky to have parents who gave all that was required for me to develop as a great person. In this article, I would be discussing some of the key problems against women that are as follows;
Gender Discrimination: This seems to be really shocking for many but unfortunately it’s the bitter truth. Female infanticide leading to gender discrimination is one the major problems that people face here. A female child is given less importance in comparison to a male child. In certain cases, it has even led parents to abort their female child. In consequence of such activities, the government in many places has banned sex determination of the child during pregnancy. Population Census of 2011 has revealed that the population ratio in India 2011 is 940 females per 1000 of males. The birth of males is celebrated however the females birth is more seen as a curse to a family in many areas. I must say that it is not everywhere but deep down it still exists. I believe the development matters when everybody thinks and does in the same manner and that is still hard to reach. However, constant efforts are being made by the government and NGOs in this direction.
Education and Employment Discrimination: Females are often denied education so that males of the family can get educated. However, I believe if we educated a daughter we educated the entire family and educating a male is just educating an individual. This is because an educated mother can take care of the entire families and protect their daughters (if any) from further discrimination. The quantity of young ladies dropping out of school far surpasses the young men since young ladies are relied upon to help at home, either with family unit work like washing and cooking etc. Since young ladies invest more energy performing household obligations and this expands the crevice amongst female and male fairness in rustic parts of India.
When it comes to employment then women in India works more than men but that is not always paid work. Women today are getting educated but the idea them working is hard to accept in many families. In my view, a woman is tied up from all sides and has little said in what actually she wants to pursue. First, their parents decide all for themselves and then it’s the husband and his family to make decisions for her. So we have got freedom but some of us still are not completely free to make our decisions.
Violence against females: This saddens me the most as domestic violence is quite prevalent here. Rape and dowry-related violence are sources of gender violence in India. There have been cases that are filed for such outbreaks of violence against females. Apart from this Honor Killings are also aggravated form of violence against women. Honor Killing is something where the lady’s conduct is connected to the respect of her entire family; in outrageous cases, family member(s) murder her. Such killings are hard to confirm, and there is debate whether social activists are expanding numbers. Mostly these are connected to the lady wedding somebody that the family emphatically objects to.
This topic is so wide and hard to describe that I am falling short of words. These were some of the key issues regarding the hardships of a girl child. The issues are really sensitive and people are dealing with it on a daily basis. In spite of all these, there are still many females who have made the nation proud. Be it in the field of sports or administration or politics etc. To sum up I would say that there are problems and we all are fighting against but that doesn’t stop the entire female community from bringing laurels to their nation and families. I am proud to be born here as girl child and one day we will get over such issues.
