It Is A Girl

This article was in my draft for a very long time. I wanted to post it for a special occasion, that being the International Women's Day. I'm not sure how apt this piece would be. This is one of the issues I feel strongly about.

I genuinely liked the government's "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" scheme with awareness for the betterment of women's welfare. Another campaign which took nation by storm was "Selfie with the daughter" last year.  Have these two helped in anyway to curb the female infanticide?  According to census data, the child sex Ratio (0-6 years) in India was 927 girls per 1,000 boys in 2001, which dropped drastically to 918 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2011. A 2012 UNICEF report has ranked India 41st among 195 countries.

My parents never differentiated between my brothers and me in anyway. I remember one of my dad's colleagues telling him not to spend money on my education as it is dead investment because they have to get me married anyway. Had my dad listen? Not a bit. What was his reply is still fresh in my memory. "I want her to be independent, married or not." And I intend to be independent for a very very long time. Again I was lucky and I'm. Can we say the same for all the girls out there? Being born girl in India itself is a miracle. Then education, equal privileges like their male counter part,  to have a say in partner selection, respect and love in marriage, live a life according to their choice are unattainable dreams.

I remember one of my closest friends saying girl child is expensive and she prefers baby boy when she was conceived. She got a piece of my mind left, right, and center. Has not she have a say in this, it is her baby after all? My problem is not about her having preference, but saying girls are expensive and things like that. I'm flabbergasted. Another reason is that her in-laws fast for three days in mourning if the baby is a girl. Why this insane notion to please everybody?

When my sister-in-law had my nephew, she mistakenly said she was hoping to have a girl. My extended family was aghast. They couldn't fathom how can she say such unacceptable things. I found her behavior perfectly normal. The irksome relatives should thank their stars for my absence there.

One of my mother sisters proudly acknowledges her preference towards male child. I deflate her happy bubble wrap with my logical reasoning each and every time. However, slowly I'm realizing it is almost impossible to inculcate some sense into her airhead. The prejudice and stereotype are deep rooted. 

One of our classmates cried her heart out after delivering a baby girl. Her parents clearly wasted a lot of money on her education. Oh! Sorry, on schooling. I don't want to sound blatant here, but Karma is a bitch. The same classmate had another baby girl and her sadness know no bounds I'm told. It has nothing to do with financial status. It has sprawled all around the society thick and wide. 

I know people who pined for sons and daughters's place is always of second citizen. Parents of girls are proud declaring they raised their daughters's like sons. Why cant they bloody raise their daughters like daughters?

Patriarchal society ingrained us to believe male is superior, having male child is the ultimate nirvana in life, etc. It will take centuries to change mind set of people. We have neighboring China for company in this female feticide. The one-child policy made it more worse for them. And I have an inane desire to take down one or two well-meaning elderly people for blessing Shata Putra Vati Bava (may you have a hundred sons) to newly weds.  

I'm brutally articulate regarding this topic. I pledge on this day to help educating, coaxing, pestering, hounding the people around me on this. I definitely wouldn't be alive to see the change, but effort must go on so that one day mankind will have a well-balanced society where everyone will have equal rights and opportunities irrespective of gender. That would be my Utopia. 

Happy Women's Day