AMBIKA MORAJKAR
In a generation like today, we often speak about women’s independence, freedom, and equality. But how much of women’s independence truly exists? The crucial barricade starts from our own homes itself.
Every girl, since her childhood, is expected to add her father’s name to anything where she has to give her name. It may be a competition she wins, a scholarship she receives, or any notable work she performs. This is a barricade that limits a girl from her childhood and then carries forward, where she is expected to enter her husband’s name for the respective things or achievements she receives. Unknowingly, this action makes a woman feel trapped and prevents her from standing on her own feet independently. Her identity slowly becomes connected to the men in her life rather than to the work and achievements that belong to her.
Another mindset that needs to be questioned is the belief that a woman should always be present at home, even for something as simple as collecting a parcel. A world that constantly speaks about women’s independence can, at the same time, indirectly bring women down through expectations like these. These may seem like small matters, but they have a huge impact and reveal the mentality that people continue to carry.
There is also the common behaviour where women are held responsible for almost everything that goes wrong. A child talks rudely, a husband corrects his mother, something goes wrong at home and somehow, the woman is expected to answer for it. This behaviour may seem small, but it is a matter that needs to be thought about and worked on.
What triggered me was the very fact that such things happen every now and then, yet nobody talks about them or questions the hypocrisy within society. Independence cannot only be a word we use in conversations. Let us work for it and truly make a woman feel independent. Let her achievements belong to her. Let the credit for her work be just hers. And most importantly, let her name be hers.
(The writer is a student)
