Girl Child

It’s been a while since I wrote my last article. My passion for writing had rested for a while and here I am to dust it again.

Girl Child

The humiliations a girl child’s parents start to face just does not begin after her birth but much earlier when her mother conceived her in her womb. The moment she announces that it’s a “girl”, the society asks- Oh it’s a girl? This is the mindset of most narrow-minded people at least in down south of India. If the baby is a boy, the same society exclaims- Its’ a boy!!

The sorrow of the mother doesn’t end there if she is conceived for the second time with a girl baby again. The questions continue. "Two daughters? No son?"

If you are new to this society, you may not understand the meaning behind “No Son?”. This society believes that only a son in a family makes the family complete. We are at 2019 and if these questions still continue its high time to contemplate about this.

The moment the baby’s first kick is felt in a mother’s womb, she rejoices, she starts living for the life within her, whether she has the maturity to raise a baby or not, a sense of responsibility grows into her veins involuntarily and she starts feeling it- “Sweet my child, I live for you”. This beautiful rush of emotions is questioned by the society, by just one question, "oh it’s a girl?" And the advice continues, "Please start saving from day one." Savings is something mandatory in every adult’s life but it’s an obligation if it’s a girl child.

The mother does her best to provide her daughter the best education she can, despite the same old questions raised to her a hundred and hundreds of times, in simple words, infinite times. Because she is still the same mother who felt joyous in the very first kick of her baby. When her daughter wins prizes and accolades, her joy has no bounds. Only when her daughter excels in her education and finds a reputed job, she breathes, a sigh of relief.

How easy it is for a mother who conceives a boy? The same society questions nothing. Yes, nothing at all. How unfair right? Doesn’t a daughter’s mother also need some silence? Some peace without these questions?

Obviously, there are safety concerns in raising a girl child, but the point here is not even about safety. It is something to do with people’s mindset. There is nothing like a girl child has to be raised for being handed over for a marriage with all riches and and there is nothing like only a boy child will grow into something special and save a family’s honour. Every child is unique, with unique talents and capabilities. When this society starts seeing only that, it will exclaim , “It’s a girl!!” and only that mindset will even make knowing the gender in the womb legal in India.

Until then you & me and can only wish what Tagore said “Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.” for another 100 years.