By: Taniya Khangembam
A single thought from you makes a single wish which lead to a prudent and holds the social action. What kind of wish you want to give for a woman who is expecting her first child? Will you talk about a healthy baby boy or simply a healthy child?
Traditionally, male kids are preferred as their first babies. It has been analysed that the importance of religion is misused in giving births to young ones. Any religion does not encourage its people to be gender selective but the social cohesion where individuals have certain preference eliminates the morality and discipline of religion. Not only religion but the positivism of science is also being misused for this traditional belief system.
The roots of this problem lie in a strong patriarchal society that has translated into an obsessive preference for sons. The orthodox system believes that first female child won’t help with work, she won’t continue the family name, parents will need expensive dowry for the groom’s family, she will move to their in-laws and will not take care of her parents in old age. There is a traditional healer who believes in the saying, “ We accept the first girl, the second should be killed then the third will be a son”.
We are usually encountering in our daily life where couple pray at temples for their first born child to be a son. It has become a form of prestige and dignity in the family. We have also seen big celebrations for every families when sons are born. Another event is in terms of adoption. When adoptive parents seek for their child, biological parents rarely give their baby if the baby is boy. Are they showing their negligence to their daughter? Interestingly, numerous researchers have found that parents who are expecting a child biologically prefer a boy while adoption agencies for both international and national shows that 75-80% of adoptive parents favour to adopt girls. Why adoptive parents prefer girl child and biological parents prefer boy child? One of the most common theories behind this reality is adoptive parents are afraid of boys because they are emotionally weak and there are general propositions which believes that girls are quieter, more well behaved and easier to understand and accept the situation of her life. Eventually you might be asking, “How about the biological boy?” This is all about the psychological conceptions with prejudice and preconceived notions.
Today is the day to change the wish from ‘a healthy baby boy’ to ‘a healthy baby’ irrespective of gender because both of them can bring the real happiness in a family. A healthy child is the future of every nation with a little amount of care, a handful of warmth and a heart full of love, can make a big difference in the development of a country instead of making efforts in gender selective.
The writer is Pursuing BA Honours in Sociology at Assam Downtown University.
