My Dream for Indian Women

By Khushi Popat

“I have a dream” were the first words of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous speech about racial injustice. Unfortunately, along with racial injustice, gender inequality is an issue relevant in most countries today. Gender inequality is defined as discrimination based on sex or gender, causing one sex or gender to be routinely privileged or prioritized over the other. However, gender inequality is more than discrimination. Gender inequality is robbing the identity and self-esteem of an individual. Discrimination based on sex causes an imbalance in society and can hamper the growth of a country. India is a country that is infamous for the way they treat their women.

Did you know that 48% of the Indian population is female? While there isn’t a vast difference in the number of males and females in the country, there is a stark contrast in the way females are treated. Since time immemorial, India has been a patriarchal society, and women have always been treated as the weaker counterparts. Women are taught to be docile, quiet around men, and opinionless since their childhood. Girls are less likely to complete their education because their families would rather invest the same amount for the education of their sons.

Constitutionally, India is a country that treats both men and women equally. However, that is rarely implemented. Women were denied the right to vote, sanitation, health, education, and the right to choose their husbands for a long time. Even in the 21st century, less than 20% of menstruating women use sanitary products like pads, tampons, and menstrual cups. The number only rises to 50% in the urban regions. In rural India, when women go through their menstrual cycles, they are forced to sit inside their rooms and use homemade alternatives like old clothes, rags, sand, or ash instead of sanitary pads. Not only is this unhygienic and can cause severe health problems, but it also obstructs women’s lives because they aren’t allowed to attend school and work during their menstrual cycles.

Can you imagine living in a world where two-yearold girls are taught how to sit correctly, girls are ogled at from the age of ten, eve-teased at the age of twelve, and sexualized before they become an adult? It sounds scary, doesn’t it? While it might seem like an exaggeration to most, it is the reality faced by Indian women and girls. When you live in a world where you are reduced to your reproductive organs, there isn’t scope to grow. Indian women fight every day to be seen as fellow human beings and not just for their bodies.

While things have significantly improved over time, India still has a long way to go. Indian women still don’t get respected for their work, paid enough for the same amount of work as their male contemporaries, and are harassed the second they step out of their homes.

I, too, have a dream to see India become a place where women are given the platform to speak their minds without hesitation, share their opinions without being silenced and shut out from society, travel without the fear of being taken advantage of, work without being judged, and dream without limitations.

I wish for a society where we don’t teach our young girls the right way to sit, to be quiet when the men are talking, or etch into their minds that they will only be worthy when they become someone’s wife. Instead, I want to show girls the power of dreaming and manifestation. I want them to know that they are capable of doing everything they wish to, as long as they are courageous and determined. I want to tell them that they are worthy even without being a wife or a mother. I want them to be treated as equal human beings rather than someone inferior.