Gender Discrimination

Gender discrimination is a common problem in the third world countries like Bangladesh. Every day we open the newspaper and see the grim picture of this evil. Gender discrimination begins at birth. In our country women are the worst sufferers. A female child is born to an unwelcome world. When a female child is born, it is not regarded as a happy event. She is not welcome with the deep warmth of heart. Instead of being delighted the male members think that she has come to add to their misery. Even the mother of the female child is not welcome cordially for giving their birth to a female child. Rather she is held in great contempt. Because of the social prejudice and superstition every parent desires a male child. Social prejudices and customs tend to degrade their position. Obviously, there are many reasons behind this social superstition. First of all she is regarded as a liability to be got rid of as soon as possible. Her marriage drives her parents mad for our evil dowry system. So, her parents try to find a husband for her even before she attains physical and mental maturity. Females become victims to discrimination in family, in state and in the society as a whole. The girls are not given proper education and not encouraged to build up professional careers. Rather, they are deemed to be born to be home-makers only. They are not empowered enough to raise their status in the society. Most of our parents are in favour of marrying them off at an early age. Deprivation, torture, powerlessness, dependency, domination are their fate.

Religious misinterpretation and social structures discourage often prevent girls from going to co-education schools. In a word, society strips them of their rights to live as independent human beings. However, females are half of our total population. So by keeping them deprived we deprive half of our population and deprive ourselves of the services of half of our potential human resources. This problem cannot be solved overnight. To solve this problem our outlook towards the girls should be changed. We should realize that women are equal partners to men. They should be made self-sufficient by giving them proper education and employment. They must be given all social facilities equally like their male counterparts. Early marriage should be stopped. Above all, female have to be considered human beings rather than females only.