Miss India 2018 Anukeerthy Vas, raised by a single mother, yet again bears testimony to the fact that single mothers are raising strong, independent children despite adversities.
One of things that drove and inspired Anukeerthy Vas in her journey that lead to her successfully becoming the 55th Femina Miss India ,was her mother.
Raising a child is no cakewalk, especially for a single parent. It’s comparatively more harder for a women living in a patriarchal society like India. Then, there’s the case of single mothers, many a times abandoned because of giving birth to daughters. But stop! Don’t pity them; they are excellent parents who’ve nurtured and shaped successful children.
These women have deconstructed taboos around single mothers and proved that they can achieve anything and enable and equip their daughters to do the same.
Taking on the role of two parents these women have instilled values, grit and resilience, that incline their children in achieving whatever they want. They have taught the virtues of hard work and love by example. They have worked hard both at work and home to provide for their children. They have not allowed their weakest moments to define them and taught their daughters to learn and grow from adversities.
Be it Seelena Vas, mother of Anukeerthy Vas who has brought up her daughter as a single parent from when Anukeerthy was four years old and her father went missing; or Neera Chopra, mother of former Miss India and actress Pooja Chopra, who raised her two daughters after she left her husband who did not accept another girl child, these women have braved the world and shown that they can make all dreams come true.
These are only two examples out of the thousands of single mothers and daughters who are constantly striving for a better life.
In many cases, women are left to raise their daughters alone as they are shunned because they gave birth to a girl child. Well, it’s a patriarchal society and having a girl child equals to collecting huge sums of dowry. Our society hates a female child so much so that there has been acquired genocide, female foeticide for decades. Now, that it’s been made illegal, we indulge in female infanticide. India has one of the highest rates of female infanticide in the world.
Thousands of mothers are asked to kill their new born girl child only because of her sex, failing which she is abandoned. Even though science has developed so much and it is a known fact that woman is not responsible for determining the sex of the child, society still blames her- a baseless, inhumane blame at that.
Owing to this mindset, women are not educated enough, not given proper jobs, denied equal pay and many more such things that makes the life of a single mother next to impossible. Divorced women or unmarried women many a times loose support of their families and are left to fend for themselves. The shame that these women are made to feel, elevates their problems to the next level.
It’s high time now that we realize that single women are completely capable of raising children on their own. Mothers of Anukeerthy Vas, Pooja Chopra, Angelina Jolie, Halle Berry even Barack Obama are a testimony to this fact.
Actresses such as Urvashi Dholakia, Neena Gupta, Pooja Bedi, Kamya Punjabi, Poonam Dhillon are single mothers whom we can look up to and undo the prejudice against them.
What’s important is that we know that women are capable of running a home, raising children, managing a job and doing everything else. So instead of pitying or shaming these single mothers, let’s support them. Let’s look at them, learn and raise our daughters too to be independent, strong and beautiful human beings.
Image source: twitter
read more...
Women's Web is an open platform that publishes a diversity of views, indivisual posts do not necessarily represent the platofrom's views and opinions at all times.
Stay updated with our Weekly Newsletter or Daily Summary - or both!
If in-laws treat their daughters in law differently, it can certainly lead to a very traumatic and sticky situation in the family.
“Can you get me some water?” asked my MIL from her place in the bedroom at 11a.m. on a leisurely Sunday.
Apologies to patriotic people, but most of us Indians are not sensitive to special needs people & their emotions. Let's make this world a better place for them!
Apologies to patriotic people, but most of us Indians are not sensitive to special needs people & their emotions. Let’s make this world a better place for them!
My daughter Farheena is a young, smart lady with special needs. She is 26 years of age. I was diagnosed with 3rd Stage breast cancer when she was just 11 months old. Considering how our society responds to people who are different in any way, I was so scared to die that I kicked cancer and continued living. Of course, I had to undergo regular treatment to overcome cancer, but it was not tough.
In a country like ours where women are judged for every aspect of their lives, how tough is it being a single mother? Here are the stories of 5 inspiring single moms in India.
‘‘You’re not a real family!” “Oh, she must be easily available!” “Let’s avoid her because she’ll poach our husbands!”
Neena Gupta must certainly have struggled with a child out of wedlock back in the '80s, but does that mean that only heterosexual couples in a marriage should have kids?
Neena Gupta must certainly have struggled with a child out of wedlock back in the ’80s, but does that mean that only heterosexual couples in a marriage should have kids?
Neena Gupta has recently spoken up about her struggles of having a child out of wedlock in the late 80s, in an interview to Mumbai Mirror.