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While we may understand the importance of educating our daughters, we still prioritise the sons' learning over daughters'. What is this new form inequality?
While we may understand the importance of educating our daughters, we still prioritise the sons’ learning over daughters’. What is this new form inequality?
I have spent 26 years of my life in Rajasthan and gone through several ups and downs and come out of them. It has been a roller coaster of a journey for me but one thing I have always noticed is the status of women in our society. And every time, the society adds a new form of inequality to all the existing ones, women learn a new skill to battle it and pretend to be happy.
My family is not different that other families. But there is one difference – they know the importance and value of education. My family wants to educate their children, irrespective of gender. They believe in quality education but not equality for everyone in several aspects of life. However, with time, I believe, they are changing.
At the same time, not all girls are lucky enough be educated. This is mostly because families believe that if a girl is educated, it won’t be easy to control her dreams and aspirations. May be they think that the girls’ aspirations will break and blur the set norms that society has set for the women.
Some girls do manage to complete their schooling but getting admitted into colleges is still a dream for them even in the 21st century. It took centuries for girls to be able to get an education but will it another few centuries to let the girls go to nearby towns for higher education?
The girls who do enrol themselves for higher education are barely able to manage going outside their house without a male member of the family. These girls are happy that they can at least access higher education but quite often, they are not allowed to use their mobile phones or laptops.
They aren’t allowed to talk to their friends since their families believe that the girls might start talking to unknown males and that might destroy the family’s respect. All this might break the social structure and culturally classifying boundaries set for girls.
With the recently pandemic, women’s conditions are only worsening. They are constantly home with family members monitoring their activities. The women, quite often, cannot talk to anyone about their problems or ask for help.
Across the world, educational institutions are adapting the digital mode of learning for their students. Online education is bringing a whole new form of inequality for the poor and the ones living in remote areas with barely any internet connection.
If the family can somehow afford a mobile phone or laptop for their kids, it is always the boy who gets to first use the technology to attend classes. This brings a whole new challenge for the girls and produces a completely new inequality for the girls. I don’t know when we’ll get equal education without adding a whole new inequality for our girls.
Dear society, I know you are worried about your son’s future and really, there is nothing wrong with that. My only request is that please be a little sensitive about your daughter and her future as well!
Picture credits: Pexels
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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