8/13/2019 About Gender Equality

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A lot of things have been said and heard about Gender Equality, but have we ever thought about

how this discussion or rather the need to question the position of women compared to men in the

society came about?

When we all were young we studied Early Man in Social Studies or Social Sciences, we studied that

man used to go out to hunt for animals for food and women used to stay back well protected in the

caves. Do we have any solid evidence to prove this hypothesis? NO. We have made this assumption

only on the basis of the fact that women are weak. Next comes Raksha Bandhanwhich has been

going on for generations where women tie rakhis on their brothers hand openly symbolizing that

they are weak and they need protection. Since generations, a number of such activities and rituals

have created a mind-set that Yes! Women are the weak links of the society.

Now when we are watching TV and we see a debate going on and there is a question asked by the

host What do you think is the biggest hurdle India is facing on its path of becoming a Developed

Country, we hear people saying Corruption, Terrorism and Communalism are the only major

problems to be dealt with. Very few of them talk about how crucially there is a need to empower

women in the society and if we are successful in doing that well have double the force to tackle the

other problems.

In 2013 the World Economic Forum ranked 110 countries on the basis of gender equality and as per

the Global Gender gap Index, India ranks a well-deserved 101th rank. All this is our fault, we tend to

be fascinated by the western culture and want to adopt their lifestyle, their food and even their

language, but their idea of equality is still of least concern to us.

Do you all know that girls in Zari do not even know how to use toilets? Since they live in slums their

houses dont have toilets and the government has built 10 public toilets somewhere in the middle oftheir settlement but there have been cases where girls are being raped by the locals when they go to

use those toilets even during the evenings. This is created such mental fear and trauma in their

minds that they are forced to use the gutters near their houses and parents have stopped sending

even their 5 years old children to use them .

Lack of awareness and education is forcing parents to marry their 12 year old daughters to 30 year

old men and cases have been reported where the husband leaves his pregnant wife to live and

aimless life. The parents take such actions because they are unaware of the importance of education

in their daughters life and that educating her will obviously prove beneficial for her.Dont you think

that these matters are much more severe than worrying about corruption and communalism?

There are many such girls who think that their life has now become worthless and they are forced to

take severe actions like suicide to end their innocent lives. Do you think this is justified?

We dont and that is why we are doing all this. The blog, these bands and all of this is just a

beginning. We want to support these girls and we need your help to bridge the gap between

genders that have been created over generations. We hope that we can be of help to them and

make them believe in themselves once again.