Sunday, September 12, 2010
Girl O' factor
Today I was travelling by a public transport and happened to overhear a conversation between so called educated women, which was simply devastating!! There were few women talking about the gender of the 'yet-to-be-born' child. i was aghast thinking of how people are.Even in this 21st century they want a male child onoly for the fact that the male child would continue the lineage.( as if its a sin to have a girl child). I was too tempted to ask those people if they will abandon the child were it a girl. Such is the pathetic state of our country and society. When will the minds change? Is it really a sin to have a girl child? Isnt a girl on par with a boy? We are still masked with the conception that female : male equality is getting better. Atleast the educated class should know to respect a woman. In my experience the importance of a girl comes to light only when she is born. I hope END is nearer to this discrimination (the discrimination of a child even before its birth).
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9 comments:
What you have written is so true...even today so-called educated people sometimes think like this...very sad state!!
Very meaningful opinion. This shows that education doesn't necessarily provide the knowledge that the individual truly needs. I believe people are more insecured than stronger about the fact that they are parents to a girl child. I hope they realize sooner than later that a child is a child - girl or boy - and that a boy may not necessarily provide a good life to the parents like a girl does (of course, I admit that this may not always be true but it is not false either).
Let's hope for change and let's be the ones who become that "change".
I do not entirely agree with you because now a days the educated ones are preferring girl child to a boy child. The reason purely is because it is easier to raise a girl in current circumstances than a boy child (reservations , diminishing gender ratio etc ) . It is true though that a boy is considered to be the flag bearer of the family lineage.So the educated are currently indifferent between a boy or a girl as it is a trade off between easy upbringing and lineage. On that note i would disagree with educated ones NOT wanting to have a girl child.
It is true that these days MOST educated people show equality between a girl and a boy but there are still some people who would want a boy to carry-on-the-family-name...how will one solve this problem??
@Aparna
The problem actually cannot be solved because if you flip the genders and accept that a Girls family name would be carried forward then a similar issue will arise :) . My take on this is to not pay weightage to the family name in the first place. Just a suggestion
Welcome to today's so called education system and meet the so called educated ones.... Minus a few people, gender discrimination is still there...and the worst news is "WE ARE PROMOTING IT". BTW...kudos
@Hari : as u said that's what is happening in the current society.
@Chakradhar - there might be people who would have a trade off betw easy up bringing and lineage , still there is quite a significant percent where having a BOY is considered auspicious.
@Bassix - this change can happen only after next 2 generations. Yet, i would hope for a change is people's attitude.
Thanks for making the point as one of the blog. I hope we can over come this situation very soon.
"Short-changing girls is not only a matter of gender discrimination; it is bad economics and bad societal policy. Experience has shown, over and over again, that investment in girls' education translate directly and quickly into better nutrition for the hole family, better health care, declining fertility, poverty reduction and better overall economic performance".
We can eliminate the discrimination by the following points suggested by Internation Conference on Population and Development.
1.Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child and the root causes of son preference, which results in harmful and unethical practices regarding female infanticide and sex selection before birth;
2.Increase public awareness of the value of the girl child and at the same time strengthen the self-image, self-esteem and status of the girl child;
3.Improve the welfare of the girl child, especially in regards to health, nutrition and education.
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