Our society, no matter how much educated it would become, is still inept to come out of those old roots of gender bias. Many women or girls have heard, "You are a girl, you cannot hang out like boys", "You must wear full-length clothes", "Don't wear revealing clothes", "Don’t wear tight-fitting clothes!" The list is endless.
These points may sound silly to many of you, whose families are open-minded enough and are not biased. But this problem still exists in our society.
How Do Parents or Families of Women Behave With Them?
When a girl is growing up, instead of some parents being happy it makes them wary of her. Whenever the girl is out, families worry about her safety and security. There is a fraught situation in families of girls who are out there in metro cities, especially in New Delhi.
Here's Something We All Need to Think and Act Upon -
Have we ever thought about why? If a boy is safe, so why not a girl? Is she inept to protect her? And wait why does she need to protect her? It’s her right to move freely in her own country.
The only reason behind such questions is the boys- the girl or women-hunters that are out in the open. Men of teenage to old age are out in society and fearlessly tease or physically assault girls. None of us knows why they do that. They go out, assault women and again move openly in constant search of other girls.
The recent lockdown has aggravated the situation. As soon as the unlocking started, we are inundated with the rising number of rape cases among women, from city to rural areas everywhere. Rape of young girls, 2-3-year-olds, rape of girls or women in public places, in homes, and the most heinous by their fathers, etc. Such news makes us numb.
All of us have talked about the deteriorating mental state of all people during this pandemic, but have we ever paid any heed to the mental condition of girls, who have been locked-in in their houses for the whole of their life.
They are granted leeway, but that- too constrained. Why so? Just because we, the men, the girl-hunters reign the outside world? Or eve-teasing and such disgusting actions have become a habit for some?
You can’t imagine the hardships a woman or a girl goes through daily, she is encountered by the men, making lewd comments, harassing them, etc. In our society, girls are blamed for the uncontrolled impulses of the men and sometimes, unfortunately, they end up believing it.
Their body has been God-gifted, so why are we interested in making gross and insensitive remarks on them or hurting them? Is it in any way ethical?
The Need of the Hour -
Mourning for rape cases and expressing momentarily anger won’t mend such activities. Generations would go by and girls won’t be able to move freely, the way they want to hang out with friends just like we boys do unless we take some steps. They would be unable to wear the clothes they want, the time they want to go out.
Being a boy and having girls as friends, I can understand their pain. It’s our utmost and foremost duty to provide a safe environment and society for women and girls.
Controlling our inappropriate behaviour is the need of the hour. The consent of the other, be it anyone, is necessary to touch someone. We should be in our limits and let the women enjoy their life too.
Conclusion -
A human being is a human first and not anyone’s fantasy-fulfiller. We should be aware of the fact that girls too can tease us; they too can dominate us or beat us. The level of shame we show towards them can be reciprocated by them too. And if they did, we the harbingers of masculinity would think a million times before stepping out of homes.
Thus, we all must live in harmony, helping each other to lead the lives. God has made us for a purpose, we must search for that and it can be done only after we leave this gender bias behind.
Written by - Vishal
Edited by - Ivanova
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