You are a Girl...

Normally, I try my best not to discriminate between genders. But almost every day, I face the discrimination, either to my advantage or to a worrisome disadvantage. 

In a country where Boys are assumed to be a more productive offspring than Girls, it is not surprising to face gender discrimination. But still, it surprises me every time I face it, because even for trivial matters, people start discriminating.

I was brought up in a liberal household, given freedom from discrimination, until I came to what they deemed as "marriageable age". Roaming out after hours was not allowed, staying at even close friend's place for too long was forbidden, talking with guys outside family wasn't allowed, dressing conservatively was a must and suddenly, being religious and offering pujas for getting a good husband was top priority.

And then came the topic of Dowry. To someone as me, who grew up thwarting guys in education, having a bunch of girls as friends who are excellent in everything they do and having the confidence of being capable of doing anything, giving money to a guy for getting married to him is nothing less than blasphemy. 

When I was at school, we had a lesson telling us that Dowry is an anti-social practice. After the lesson was taught, I tried to conduct a survey and find out how many guys were willing to at least say that they wouldn't want to take dowry. To my surprise, nearly half of them were reluctant to answer and only a few actually said that they wouldn't want to take dowry. A good percentage agreed that since they have to support their wife for the rest of their lives, dowry is a must.

What guys keep forgetting is that the woman they are going to marry would be cleaning the house, cooking, doing household chores, looking after the kids and in-laws and playing host to his guests all for FREE FREE FREE! If the guy had to pay his wife for all these, his monthly salary wouldn't be enough. Then where does the concept of paying dowry comes from?

Even if a guy declines to take Dowry, then comes the matter of leaving her family behind to take care of the in-laws. And elders say, "Since you are a girl, you should forget about your family after marriage and dedicate yourself in serving your husband and in-laws". But why? Is marriage a camouflage for salary-free servant recruitment?

I heard, in pre-independence days, when all commodities were costly because of lack of indigenous products, milk was given only to male-child to drink. Since it was a common belief that the male-child would be the one who would take care of his parents one day, the selfish society simply forgot the fact that female child needs more calcium and iron than the male child since she would be the one to bear children.

It has been proven time to time that girls have more IQ than boys and are more sincere students and employees in comparison. And even though girls sometimes are not comfortable with jobs needing physical strength, they always stay in the front for working even under harsh conditions. Also, female workers seldom complain and get into fights.

What people (including grown up females) forget is, a girl-child is not a liability. On the contrary, she is an asset. She does the household chores to help her mother, takes care of father, is more easy to handle as a youngster and is more dedicated towards family. Then why discriminate?

Next time, when someone says, "Since you are a girl..." to stop something which is your right, then simply pay a deaf ear to them. For all we know, every human being have an equal right on this earth.