Dear Pannalal Shakya, Sanskars Are Not Coded Into Our DNA

Pannalal Shakya, the BJP MLA from Guna Madhya Pradesh, recently said that women should either bear sanskari children or stay infertile.

Congress came up with slogan of 'Gharibi Hatao' but instead wiped out the poor.There are women who give birth to such leaders. Women should rather remain infertile than produce kids who are not 'sanskari' & who deform society: Guna BJP MLA Pannalal Shakya (13.6.18) #MadhyaPradesh pic.twitter.com/6qhfV8LOyM

— ANI (@ANI) June 14, 2018

This is not the first time for Shakya, previously he had remarked that girls should not make boyfriends if they want to beat the increasing rate of crime against women.

The recent statement, on bearing sanskari kids has raised a lot of questions. First and foremost who are the sanskari children? Clearly one needs a sanskari man to produce sanskari children. So, where does one find such gents in India these days?

Moreover, what was Mr Shakya huffing when he decided that it was better to be infertile than bearing  un-sanskari children?

Sanskars are not hereditary

As if the pressure to bear a male heir was not enough, Indian mothers must now make sure that kids come out of their wombs well versed in sanskars. Perhaps doctors can invent a technique to embed our sanskars to our DNA or conduct an intrauterine tutorial for this.

Shakya like every other patriarch in our country has put the burden of “good behaviour and conduct” on the mother. According to him, it is singularly a mother’s duty to ensure that her child becomes sanskari. What is the father’s duty then? To merely put his feet up and criticise his wife for not doing her job well?

Since ages, rearing up a “well brought up” child has been a sole responsibility of a mother. And she must make every possible sacrifice to ensure that. She must quit her job to stay home. She must overlook all that she is capable of achieving professionally or personally, with the singular dedication of bringing up children who are deemed sanskari by the society.

Shakya thinks women should rather infertile than breed kusanskari children. Only a conservative man, who has zero empathy towards women can say such a thing. Had Shakya known how traumatic it is for women to want children but not be able to have them! To live with their heads hanging low with the shame of not being able to perform what people like Shakya consider to be the prime duty of their gender.

Infertility is not a choice willing made by women

Most conservative men do not care to know how frustrating it is to miscarry or fail to conceive despite spending millions. If ever scientist manage to embed sanskars to our DNA, I would like them to staple a microgram of common sense and empathy to it as well. That way at least women of future generations wouldn’t have to bear with such statements.

Credits: animals.mom.me

Also Read : The Great Indian Search For The ‘Sanskari Girl’

Yamini Pustake Bhalerao is a writer with the SheThePeople team, in the Opinions section. The views expressed are the author’s own