Girls are weighed down by restrictions, boys with demands — two equally harmful disciplines.

Scenario 1: Ananya’s father is a farmer who saves his life’s earnings for her marriage, and after her marriage, she is tortured by her in-laws for not providing enough “dowry”, not allowing her to walk out of the house and making her work in an inhumane manner.

Scenario 2: Yash was a brilliant child, excellent in maths and reasoning, therefore he was asked to take engineering by his parents and go to Kota for coaching but deep inside he wants to become a football player. After arriving in Kota, not long after he went into depression during his preparation and ended his life.

Like Ananya and Yash, millions of others are facing the same situation, where girls are weighed down by restrictions and boys with demand.

Therefore, in this essay, we shall examine what is the social problem faced by both girls and boys that is weighing them down by restriction and demands. Also, we shall see, what are the hindrances to these changes and ways to solve the issue.

“The status of girls and boys in the society”

Girls are asked to stay inside the house and come home early not after 7 PM, while boys are asked to go out, be it for tuition or earning.

Girls are “a good girl” if they stay inside the house and boys are “a bad boy” if they stay in the house.

Girls are okay if they do not earn and become housewives and boys are “spoiled” if they fail to earn or get a job.

Our society has many problems which need to be changed but why are the changes at a snail-moving pace?

To answer this question, let’s understand this from the early ancient times, when women were considered equal to God, therefore we see many Hindu goddesses, like Laxmi, and Saraswati, to name a few.

It was only in medieval times that the status of women was nosedive due to various factors, one of which was the invasion from outsiders. Where the women had to take care of the family, while men were expected to go to war and become the breadwinners of the house which was more of the “division of labour”.

But this soon turns into men being superior due to economic well-being earned from the participation of labour. This was one of the major factors why the concept of “division of labour” evolved into the toxicity of gender inequality and the “division of men and women” status.

In the current time, we can see men in many sectors working long hours to earn an extra penny sometimes in inhumane conditions, “yet silent”.

Similarly, we can also witness women in the trend of climbing up the stairs at a tortoise-moving pace. Also, we have witnessed the trend of feminization going in a negative direction i.e. “female supremacy” (viral on many social media platforms). Therefore the goal should be gender equality, not female supremacy.

Yes, there is less talk of women’s representation, for example, it is only 14.4 per cent of women MPs in the Indian Parliament, which reflects the picture of the ground reality of the status of Indian women.

You might be thinking just 14.4 per cent!

I understand it is only 14.4 per cent, therefore it is no doubt that we need to work for women but at the same time we need to understand the status of men. Then we can witness an egalitarian society.

Today, we have come a long way in minimising the inequalities and changing the mindset of the people. But the changes are at a very slow pace, slower than a sloth, and that is the fact that social changes, go at a very slow pace.

Therefore we need changes but incremental change is required by adopting and learning from various educational processes from different societies across the globe. As it is said “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world”.

Then we can see millions of others like Ananya and Yash smiling and working happily in the work that they do.