I am an independent woman; an earth scientist, and a software engineer by profession.
My father had a critical role in the whole process of my development. Since he knew that I was super interested in Science and was always good at studies, despite having financial hardships, he always backed me and encouraged me to go ahead and achieve whatever I wanted to in my life. My mom is a home-maker and having faced hardships after getting married to a typical middle-class family, she never wanted us to go through the same.
So, she had her reasons to see her kids succeed in their life and be independent. I still remember, while finishing my Bachelors’s degree, our financial situation was not sound. Yet, instead of being worried about my marriage and dowry, my dad was concerned about my education and making me independent. I used to get worried about the fact that the relatives were worried about my marriage and wanted to talk about it to my parents.
Still, my dad would come to me and pat my back, asking me not to worry about the marriage and instead think about my career and studies. He wanted me to be independent. The reason why I am writing this here is because whatever I have achieved today, it is because of my parents’ support. And if this message can reach even a part of our population living in towns and helps people change their mindsets about bringing their daughters up, I will be glad.
I’ll feel great as an Indian who wants to bring a change in our culture and the respect we give our daughters. Making our daughters self-dependent would save us from the life-long dowry our parents keep paying to the groom’s family. Even after spending so much, the only treatment our daughters get is that of a home-maid.
Hence, I sincerely believe that we must all educate our daughters.