Amidst a lot of chaos surrounding the environment today, Discrimination among the genders has constantly been topping our minds and hence it has reached to the topmost institutions of the Country to decide on the same.
But leaving aside specific instances of gender discrimination (for a while) it’s essential to stop and think on the very basic elements of what we can do at our end to discriminate the discrimination from our daily routines.
When I sat and thought of penning down my thoughts, I was remembered of a part-time job I was into (15 years back) and one of my colleague working with me in a Small Shop in Belagavi and lets’ remember he is school drop-out and working as a delivery boy. He used to get calls from his house to get a few household things on a daily basis and he used to make a note, which was quite audible to me.
His conversation in Kannada language to his family member on the call used to be crisp and short and more importantly he never used to talk in Ekvachan (singular tone) After a few days on hearing his (almost) daily conversation, it was pondering in my mind, why his father called him to get the household things daily when he could get all by himself.
Hence, I began my conversation with him asking about the same, and to my surprise, he replied it was not his father who called him to tell the list of things but it was his MOTHER. I was taken aback and surprised and amused to see him talking to her every time in bahuvachan (plural tone). And the next question (rather comment) was quite obvious why do you talk to her in plural tone (isn’t that being used to the head of the family or to the fatherly figure most of the times).
A school drop-out supervisor had a simple answer: My mother is also an individual, and ‘she deserves the same respect to what a man of the family gets”
This small instance teaches us on how discriminatory we are when it comes to the female gender on a day to day basis. I rather spoke about the same to many females, and they had almost a similar opinion, i.e.: ‘Father / Man is the bread earner and he deserves that respect, and we don’t see this as a discrimination (if my kids talk to me in singular tone)’ and when I see working women in the family, they are also comfortable with the singular tone used by their kids and not towards the father.
So, does this mean it is a part of our DNA to take this as it is and assume that a particular gender is superior and deserves a special treatment and the same would be carried on forever ?? Or for a change let’s talk in a singular tone to our father today and see his reaction (just kidding)
If we can teach the kids of respecting both the gender from the very beginning, I feel a day will come when we would not need the big brains/institutions taking their precious time to decide what discrimination is and how it can be eradicated. Its’ certainly in our hands (rather in our minds) to Discriminate the Discrimination from our Routine
About the Author: Suhas Rajput is a Trainer & Career Counsellor, Co-Founder, Proficient Minds, School for Skill Development. He can be reached @ [email protected]
Mr Suhas, good effort made in penning down the thoughts. But i would beg to differ in ur analysis of day today use of singular or plural use of words as discriminatory. Well we all respect our mothers, sisters and all ladies related to the family. The emphasis need to be on the ‘behaviour’ and “thought process” of an individual towards the other gender which is more dangerous than anything else in the world. My take
Dear AAB, what was problem with my comments?
Where is the problem seen?
Ok. Got it. Thanks
Thanks Suhas, The only thing learning from your superb writing is we must teach our children to respect both the genders same. And address father & mother in plural tones….