In a world where Goddesses are worshipped for strength, money and knowledge, a female child is still unwanted in many parts of the country. The little angel who is unfortunate to have been born to that particular family (whereas some other childless family would have welcomed her with open arms) is abandoned for the fear of cost burden and eventual dowry. The girl child must live! She has the right to equality and freedom to life. Does it not occur to these cruel people that a girl child would help her family in future as much as a male child would in this developing world? Times have changed, she can be the next earning member of the family as well. 

Rural people still try their best to avoid the birth of a girl child. For many such rural families, the birth of a male child is a matter of pride and honour. The girl-boy ratio in India varies largely with the male population exceeding the female population with over 65% of the total population of the country. It is a general conception that when a girl reaches the age for marriage, her family would be burdened economically and serious troubles would be caused. This class of people with such mentality are usually either uneducated or economically backward. But the solution does not lie in changing the mentality of the girl’s family – when the bridegroom’s families will start accepting the girls without a fat bundle of cash or numerous expensive gifts, only then will this problem be solved. 

While the education of the girl child is trying to be given emphasis on in many states, it is still the country wherein the educated sections of the society to a female boss makes people quit their jobs. Such is the hypocrisy prevalent even today where ego is above the competency to work. The need for feminism is not for women to rule the world but for them to rule alongside men. This concept is somehow impossible for a lot of people to grasp who in their own distorted knowledge about feminism think that it means man-hating. That is being a feminazi. If it is so hard to understand that feminism is equal to equality or humanism and that the word sounds more female-centric owing to its historical origin, then please do go on and call it what you want (even though the fact that you cannot accept a simple term is your discredit) but be for the movement and do not spread negativity by citing the feminazis as ruining the movement. There are two sides to the same coin always and just like some men cannot grasp the root cause of a situation, so cannot some women.

It’s not in the actions and deeds but in the mentality wherein lies the problem. Patriarchy is a mental state that has been imbibed into the minds of all. Physical strength is attributed to showing one’s manliness and the emotional side for the women. Well, there are men who cry and women who are bread earners of their families by doing labour and hard work in fields. Does that make them lose their identity with respect to gender in the stereotypical world? It does not. It has nothing to do with it at all. It is the mentality which makes us accustomed to chide and bully those who do not follow the social expectations. Well, fuck society and its stigma around everything because for the progress you cannot follow rules all the time, change goes hand in hand with being a rebel since it is when people leave their comfort zone and it is high time they did.

What can be done about it is to educate people and change their mentality from the grass root levels to make them find it normal for a man and woman to flourish alongside. Compulsory sessions in schools, offices, localities – anywhere where a lot of people are gathered together and an impact can be put on them. Feminism cannot be achieved overnight, but we can all do our bits to ensure that the coming generations have it better than the past ones.