- Whatever said and done, the Indian society continues to be patriarchal, misogynistic, and still hanging on to anachronistic methodologies is a fact that cannot be brushed under the carpet despite progressing on several fronts over the decades. The Indian society is still heavily male-dominated cannot be disputed either, even though all stakeholders have assiduously contributed to ushering in gender parity, equality, unbiased treatment, and offering a level playing field. However, societal change anticipated at an exponential level on the issue of gender parity hasn’t materialized yet. This is where the active intent of every parent makes an immense transformation needed to make girls feel not only at par but also no less in every aspect.
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PC: Business Standard
- That women are second to none has been proved umpteenth time, needs no further emphasis. Women in India are excelling in every vertical that society has to offer, also need no elaboration. What was hitherto considered a male bastion has been breached successfully over the last few years, including the sporting arena. As such, India’s women’s World Cup win recently showed what can be achieved if more daughters get their fair shake at greatness. As cricket fans would have noticed during the Sunday World Cup Women’s finals, one pairing really stood out, that of fathers and daughters. They seemed to be basking particularly bright in the glow of what was happening on the field: Women in Blue fighting to lift their first ICC World Cup.
PC: Cricbuzz.com
- In this team, supporting fathers’ role is a golden thread running through several backstories, from captain Harmanpreet Kaur to Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal to Shafali Verma. The father-daughter relationships represented by these players and this audience inspire hope precisely because these are not the norm. Far from it. Consider Chandrika Chaudhary, an 18-year-old from Gujarat’s Banaskantha who scored well in NEET, allegedly killed by her father as he didn’t want her to go away to medical college and fall in love. Or, 25-year-old Radhika Yadav, a tennis coach in Gurugram, was allegedly shot dead by her father as he didn’t like her running a sports academy. These are random recent examples of familiar headlines. Maybe these are not the norm either. Most fathering occurs between these two extremes.
PC: News18
- But the norm is conservative for sure, which means it actively stops daughters from reaching their full, free potential. Daughters continue to be weighted down with all kinds of oppressive ideas of family honour, even where they get educational and work opportunities. There’s the papa’s cute baby dynamic at work, too. The same father who encourages his daughter’s MBA still expects her to prioritise marriage at a certain age, that too per his choice. In the end, the fence he has preserved stays higher than the bridge he has built. That means for every CEO, scientist, artist, and sportswoman who credits her father for creating space for her ambition, countless daughters remain tied inside often tyrannical conventions. Their dreams are crushed to guard their reputation. The World Cup win was a glimpse of what would come true if more fathers were more enlightened.
