Gender Discrimination

                                                      GENDER DISCRIMINATION

We hear headlines scream out ‘shame’ as hundreds of infants are abandoned on the streets in many developing countries. A few weeks ago, in India, a little child was left to die on the railway tracks. The crime?  She was born a girl in a country that ironically worships female power.                                                                                                                                                          

Unlike girls in the developed countries who are taught to as independent, smart and successful as boys, girls in the developing countries often don’t receive the same encouragement. They are instead tortured on the narrow limits of their freedom.                                                                  

It starts from the time of her conception, when the sex of the child is determined through a scan. The girl child is often killed by gender selective abortion or infanticide. Female infanticide is commonly practiced to allow possibilities of conceiving a boy.                              

For those girls who escape these initial perils, life is still full of hardships. They are often pulled out of school before completion of their education to assist with household chores.  If at all they were to study, it must be done in the meager time they are left with after completing tasks such as cleaning, tending to children, working on the fields, and preparing meals for members of the family in primitive conditions.                                                                                                      

Once the girl is old enough to be married, she is trusted with the boy’s family through marriage, which demands a dowry that often plunges a family into crippling debt. Once married, the girl is at the mercy of her in-laws. Thousands of women still die from dowry torture if it is thought that the dowry she brought is insufficient.                                              

Abuse follows women throughout their lives. Women living in countries where women’s rights mean nothing, are at a higher risk. The frequency of violent attacks against women is startling. If a woman goes out of bound by choosing her husband against her parents’ will, or seeks divorce, she has brought disgrace to the family and therefore is disciplined with harsh methods.                                                                                                                                        

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