Gender Inequality

 Gender inequality has been a social issue in India for centuries. That in many parts of India, the birth of a girl child is not welcomed is a known fact. It is a known fact too, that discrimination starts from even before the girl child is born and sometimes she is killed as a foetus, and if she manages to see the light of day, she is killed as an infant, which makes up the highly skewed child sex ratio where for every 1000 boys in India, there are only 908 girls. In such a scenario, it is but obvious that for myriad reasons, many girls across the country are forced to drop out of school.



Patriarchal norms have marked women as inferior to men. A girl child is considered a burden and is often not even allowed to see the light of the world. It is hard to imagine this state of affairs in the 21st Century when women have proved to be strong leaders in every field possible. From wrestling to business, the world has been revolutionised by exceptional women leaders in fields that were until recently completely dominated by men.

But in spite of such progress, even today, the girl child is discriminated against in most Indian households. The birth of a baby boy is celebrated with great pomp and ardour, but the birth of a girl child is received with dismay. The practice of female foeticide through sex selective abortion continues to be practiced in spite of the Prenatal Diagnostic Technique Act of 1994. In India the child sex ratio is at the lowest it has ever been with just 914 girls for every 1000 boys (Census, 2011).

And this discrimination continues in every aspect. Be it education, health, protection or participation, the girl child is always treated unequally. Indian society still hasn’t been awakened to the importance of empowering the women. The statistics still narrate a grim story of female foeticide, girl child discrimination and gender bias .

  • 42% of married women in India were married as children (District Information System for Education (DISE) 3)
  • 1 in every 3 child brides in the world is a girl in India (UNICEF)
  • India has more than 45 lakh girls under 15 years of age who are married with children. Out of these, 70% of the girls have 2 children (Census 2011)

The need of the hour is to make a change in the mindset of the society and destroy the prejudices that damage the future of the girl child. What is required is a concerted effort to sensitise the society in eradicating this issue of gender inequality. It is high time that every child is treated equally and given every opportunity required to grow to his/her full potential.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Caste System

Image
  The caste system in India has its roots in ancient India. Just as the ashrama dharma laid down rules and duties with reference to the individual’s life in the world, varna or caste system prescribed duties with reference to the particular caste to which an individual belonged. Earlier they were all regarded equal in social status and could take up any profession they liked. There was no restriction in the matter of eating food or marriage with members of other profession. But with the beginning of specializing in hereditary professions and coming in contact with the indigenous people situations changed and the birth of the person decided their caste. Hence the varna system that developed during that time was the outcome of the social and economic development. But as time passed, it led to the division of society into high-caste and low-caste people who could not mix with each other. Inter-caste dining or marriage was forbidden. People belonging to the so called lower castes we...
Read more

Problems of the Children

Image
  No country can progress unless it pays adequate attention to the development of children. A child is the future citizen of the country. Only those children who grow in a healthy atmosphere can contribute to the development and strength of their country. Our country has a large population of children. It is our duty to make sure that they are provided with the opportunities for good health and education. A large number of children, because of poverty, do not go to school or are withdrawn from schools before they complete their elementary education and are forced to start working at a young and tender age in factories, brick-klins, restaurants, hotels, shops etc. This hampers their growth physically, mentally, and emotionally. They grow with hatred and agony and fail to become worthy citizens of the nation. A child in the age group of 6-14 years is supposed to be in the school. But unfortunately, of the 200 million Indian children in this age group, about 11.3 million are labou...
Read more

Dowry System: A social stigma

Image
  “Any young man, who makes dowry a condition to marriage, discredits his education and his country and dishonours womanhood”— Mahatma Gandhi Dowry or Dahej, one of the deep-rooted social evils, is flourishing in our society at an unprecedented rate. There is no denying the fact that modern citizens condemn it, yet this practice varies according to the region, caste, and creed. Although it is difficult to determine the exact cause, here is a tentative list of responsible factors: • Greed Factor • Patriarchal Society • Religious Constraints • Constraints related to Caste/Creed • Lack of Formal Education • Conservative Thinking • Desire to flaunt Social Status • Low Status of Women • A False Sense of Prestige • Illiteracy & Ignorance • Lack of Knowledge about Anti-Dowry Laws From being a financial burden on a daughter’s family to wastage of money, this evil is silently claiming the lives of innocent married women. Dowry deaths are relatively higher in developing and underdev...
Read more