It’s a girl………Silence grabs the maternity hospital, the smile on face of family fades away, I want to study, why, take care of home, learn household work..why you want to play sports are you a boy? Why waste money on her education? Women, equal pay, distant ideas…. Why to do job? Why that clothes? Acid attacks, sexual violence, she should have been careful? Why these clothes? Why not perfect? Why not fair and thin? When will we get rid of this liability? You are a burden..Why you want to be independent . Why ? Why? Why? struggling through all these the only question arises in her mind why me. The world replies back because you are a girl…………..This was briefly the life of a girl. On one hand girls are worshipped and on other hand they are denied even basic human rights.
National Girl Child Day is celebrated every year on 24th January to spread awareness about inequalities girls face in India. This day was started by Ministry of Women and Child development in year 2008. It aims at spreading awareness about the rights of girls and issues they face. Various campaigns like Beti Bachao and Beti Padhao are organized by government to increase consciousness about role of girls and provide opportunities to girls in society.
Girls face discrimination right from their existence, when they are mother’s womb. The 9 months survival task with fear- will she be allowed to live. Then after birth the real discrimination starts, she must have been told 100s of time she is burden and if there was a boy he would have been successor of family and other curses for just being a girl. Then the struggle starts for education, she must know household work and take care of family. Why? Who will marry her then? Why to waste money on her education, this is the reply. Then somehow if she studies and gets a job, equal salary for equal work is a dream. Being late because of some work is seen as something bad, why she can’t be home till 7, what kind of work she does, world questions. At the same time if a boy comes home late, he is very hardworking . Plus other things of being objectified, treated impure during menstrual cycle, sexual violence are other things she suffers until she marries. Then a new cycle starts domestic violence and dowry. Kept in bars of stereotyped thinking, girls face a lot of things. As per the National Crime Records Bureau’s , 7634 women in India died as a result of Dowry harassment. That’s almost 21 deaths every day of the year! These statistics from National Crime Record Bureau are bound to shock you-
26 crimes against women reported every hour in India.
10 out of every 26 crimes are committed by husbands and relatives.
5 out of 26 crimes are categorized as assault.
3 out of 26 crimes reported is filed as kidnapping and rape separately.
Even an image is formed regarding a perfect girl and she must follow them and be a perfect girl otherwise be ready to face criticism. This view is deeply entrenched in our society, we must take steps and to work from grass root level and change this so called perfect girl image. But who is the one responsible for this? Society ! But who forms the society? What is society? We all together form a society, our individual perspective and contributions matter a lot. Mass awareness helps change the mindset of people, and thereby of society. Before blaming the society we should blame us, because if look deeply we are the one who form society, we are blaming ourselves.
This day is celebrated with pomp and show, hundreds of messages on social media, speeches on importance of girl child etc. mark celebration of this important day. Celebrating this day is important to raise awareness and have an equal society and highlight issues girls face, the various programs have even helped many girls by providing opportunities and solutions to problems. Now, what can we do?
As its said Rome was not built in a day, the programs and treating girls equally with respect must be part of our daily lives, we must aim to improve the status of women throughout the year. Giving respect and treating girls equally on one day will not change the situation. For this, we must change the thinking and patriarchal view of society. Change must be in the perspective of society about girls. As charity starts from home, let’s start from home, take a stand and spread awareness about gender equality. The journey of thousand mile begins with a single step. Let’s change the gender biased mindset. Gender equality is not a female fight, it’s a human fight. Let’s burst the gender stereotypes. Girls are proving they are unstoppable. Lets encourage and support them to be unstoppable. Not only on National day for Girl Child but 365 days.
By Urvi Shah, Maharashtra
