My strong roots in Orissa and a career in the northern part of India help me witness to a era that is sure to eliminate the girl child since the doors to opportunities shut one after the other with Bangalore colleges to raise cut –offs for girls. I come from a state where educational standards have been fairly good and where educational institutions run by the State Government give special privileges to the girl child. I do not remember my college and university fees.
Today the news of the raise of the cut offs for girls in Bangalore sends a shiver down my spine. I may not be a biological mother to a daughter- all the families that I am close to are the ones who have daughters and yes sons too. The sight of a girl child attracts me to the core, be it my close knit niece Shreya with whom I share a special bond or Sarah my friend’s daughter or Yamini my Friday girl , I considered myself fortunate to be one with them during their celebrations.
I have the best of parents , mentors and friends in life. Despite the challenges I have been foolishly proud of being an Indian because women have been respected in all ages since the dawn of civilizations. Revered by Vedas, conceived and created by Gods to snap demoniac powers women were held Supreme. Be it Durga or Savitri , Ganga or Sati women have always been revered .
Gargi was the first woman scholar during the early vedic period if not wrong. Later on as women ascended there was progress . I belonged to an age where I heard of woman powers Indira Gandhi, Nandini Satpathy, Kalpana Chawla, took India to different levels.
Meera Nayar, Sunita Williams, Arundhati Roy are a segment of existence.
But not anymore!
Much later in life I am of the belief that as women we have been quiet at unnecessary places. Quietly the woman had to go for a female feticide just because the girl child wasnot a welcome addition. Surprisingly in the North I have seen birthdays of boys being celebrated especially in Delhi but not girls on one hand and among my circle of good friends, I have been fortunate that male colleagues have always celebrated their daughters arrival with éclat.
Today as I walked into a meeting with the CMD ,CEO and COOs of a huge MNC, I was happy that it gave fruitous results . However the happiness took to grief when I heard of a shattering treatment being metted out by universities to our girls in Bangalore . While the young management that makes ATM machines were responsible fathers of sons and daughters, I was happy that most of them were proud to be fathers of daughters and I felt ashamed of the development.
On one side I would find educated fathers being very happy with their girls performances. They shared that girls were more responsible and were accountable in the family. They shared more with their fathers when it came to playing pranks for A PIZZA or a cell phone bill. Till date my father still puts up with my pranks despite having crossed the forties. So does my sibling and his family.
Coming Straight to the point, is it necessary to raise cut off marks of girls? If so, could not an alternative be worked out. Are we not in a position to accept a girl’s performance or why cannot we raise the seats for all? If so why is it that our boys were not given a treatment in bygone times?
Strange it happens at a time when we are talking of women empowerment. It happens at a time when we hear of women power-Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Sudha Murty , Chanda Kochar the list is endless.
We talk of honour killings, I think I should advocate female feticide and honour killings. I am now committed to killing the honour of the academicians and policymakers. I wish to destroy their mental attitudes and their approaches through this blog?
Any body who wishes to join me in my fight is welcome whether its men or women. And one final question are You Willing to publish this blog.
Manni JaiSuravajhala
Connect to me at
Mannijai1@gmail.com
