A short story about girl child born in last 4 decades
In todays time, in a well informed and aware society, we all think about or nations slogaan-“beeti bachao-beti padhao”, we all are known to this, infact we all should. When we will think about a girl child born in recent times,their education –well being, then only they all will grow up as an educated and self dependent (financially as well as mentally) adult and contribute towards a growing nation as ours. Bringham young had said aptly –“when we educate a male,we educate a man but when we educate a female ,we are educating a complete generation.”
At the same time one question comes up, what about those girl child born in recent 3-4 decades, those were the times when a girl child born in a family was not appreciated or celebrated but was considered as a bad luck to the family and considered as a burden on whole family’s fortunes. The first thought of the family was of remorse ,badluck,curse , efforts were made to kill the girl child before or after the birth. And how will they marry her to a suitable boy.
That society – family never had thoughts about the girls education, well being and safety. They never had thought about the girl childs doing well in their life, exceling in sports,business,administrative services,touching the sky and taking care of family and their status/reputation. No efforts were ever made to realise such thoughts.
Now the question arises as to why ?
Because a girl child was considerd as “paraya dhan”- others fortune. Whats the use of her education when ultimately she has to be married and will leave the house .Familys only concern was to get her married to a suitable boy ,perform kanyadaan and get relieved of their duty as parents, girl was always treated as liability not an asset.
We can never imagine the mental psyche of a girl born –brought up in that era. Today we think about equality but in those times it was an distant dream.on one side boy was treated as an assest to the family ,all efforts were made for his well being,good education,sports,on the other side girl child was treated differently and was reminded of being a girl- a liabilty and you desrve different treatment. This thought was purposely put into the minf of a girl child from the beginning , you are not a boy ,your only focus should be get married to a suitable boy and your purpose in life will be achieved.Family focus was only to find her a well suited boy and for that matters and to emphasise on it their sories were also like –“ one day prince charming will come on a white horse and will take our princess to a happy land”. We never thought about what next ? what happened afterwards ? We never ever thought of the situation where that same prince charming turns into a dowry hungry beast and he and his family put the princess onto kerosineoil and burn her alive for dowry.We never worried about that.
Our story still persist with only one aspect of finding the prince charming and in that process of finding a suitable boy with good education ,income and high family status, all cost to be incurred on a girl child future education and well being are cut from the beginning so as to save money for “laadli beti’s “ marriage.
Our mind shakes and refuse to accept the fact,when we hear about the story that all that money saved after cost cutting from a girl child’s future from her birth onwards, is being thown away in the gutter of alchohol ,all the money saved by the family after so much efforts are spent on the evil of alchoholby her drunkard father/brother.This isn’t a rare story but is most prevalent happening in most of the slum familys.Government may have eluded them from the basic health-education-sanitisation facilities but given them an access to the liquor shops by providing with liquor shops in vicinity of slums.And it has hampered a girl chils future badly and has contributed towrads her abuse and ill treatment by known ones ,further damaging her future.
That’s not the end ,matter even worsen , we cann’t even imagine the situation and the mental –social psyche of such girl child ,who grows up being abused and treated badly on daily basis,that pain is beyond imagination. And as to how such girls on pretext of one or the other situation, gets entangled into the dirty world of prostitution and forced sexual abuses. How such girls on the promise of better future or marriage,job,or on promise of marriage without any dowry falls prey to the institutional and infamous drugs/sex cartels,how such girls fall prey to thr gangs of “love-jihad”.i will tell you about such happenings in later publications.
My only motive for these editions are to make us aware about how hard is the life girl child born in that era of 1970’s to 2000. Girl child born in poor ,uneducated family is very tough infact severe and is as hard as it can get, and never ending also. To help them,to assist them ,to respect them and aiding them to get education ,better health and live a dignified life is not less than a pilgrimage ( haj or amarnath or kedarnath etc). Those doing such efforts deserve applause and praise and their names will be written in golden words with golden pen.
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