Indian girls are born into a cycle of oppression
As long as children are equated to assets, girls will be considered a bad investment even in rich households
Imagine a family that is waiting expectantly for the birth of a third child. After two girls, this time they pray it will be a boy. Will it be an XX or an XY? As the unpredictable chromosome would have it, another girl is born only to be met with disappointment. Very few people in India realise that the X chromosome from the egg of the woman remains constant, while the sperm from the male brings an X or Y chromosome that would decide the gender of the baby – an XX for a girl or XY for a boy.
The variable Y chromosome is by the design of science and nature, but in this innocuous switch lies the chance to better nutrition, education, health care, essentially, the chance to a better life. This baby girl will now grow up internalising the notion that she is a burden, she does not deserve better, and that her sole duty is to produce a male child. Today, on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child, let us all remember India’s girls who are still caught in the crossfire of conservative traditions and regressive mindsets. But we must also recall stories of girls who have challenged the narrative – girls who seized the opportunity to an education, to health care, and reproductive choice. The theme for this year: ‘The power of the adolescent girl: Vision for 2030’, holds the untapped potential of a generation of girls who have the power to disrupt the status quo. Girls like 21-year-old Ladkuwar Kushwaha, whose ambition was a threat to the upper caste men in her village in Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh. Kushwaha used her education as the armour against the taunts of her oppressors and she said to her parents, “Invest in my education what you want to give for my dowry.” Today, she is the first girl from her village to have gone to college.
As long as children are equated to assets, girls will be considered a bad investment even in economically better off households. This has been corroborated by studies that show a higher rate of sex-selective abortions amidst wealthy upper-caste families who were averse to having daughters in the interest of preserving their wealth within the family. And while the Prenatal Conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Technique Act is a necessary deterrent to sex-selection, it is not sufficient to bring about a change in the behavioural patterns of society.
Indian girls are born into a cycle of oppression that has been peddled from one generation to another. But by empowering just one girl we can make her a force of sea change. Given the chance, girls will break the wheel of oppression, they will ensure that the possibilities are limitless, and will change the narrative for the generations to come. Whether we are working in the field of business, education, medicine, information technology, or running our family, it is good to sit down periodically to take stock of our goals, how far we have met them, and how to set priorities towards their attainment.
It is helpful to stop and ask ourselves, where is our attention going? What are our priorities? We may find that we spend too much time and attention in the monetary aspect of our life or our careers at the cost of