5 Indian Women Speak About Being The Only Girl Child In The Family

How does it feel to be a single girl child in India? Every girl child might have different experiences while growing up. Some are bitter, and some are like a dream. On the occasion of International day of the girl child SheThePeople spoke to a few women. For the first time, United Nations observed the International Day of the Girl Child on 11 October 2012. It was observed to raise awareness of the gender inequity that girls worldwide suffer depending on their gender.

Indian society is regarded as conservative. In our culture, a woman who marries a guy must leave her parent's house and move in with the man she weds and his entire family. I feel it's cruel, and this could be one of the reasons why, despite being such a progressive nation, some Indian families still long for male children over female ones.

Rarely does anyone care to add additional details when it's a baby boy; however, an adjective is frequently added when it's a baby girl to compensate for her existence. For example, "she is beautiful," "she is really cute," and so forth.

Moreover, Indian parents can't count on their daughters to care for them when they get older. They are led to feel that if they have only girls, it is their fate to live and suffer alone. We spoke to five women who are the only girl child in their families and asked about their experiences.

5 Women and their experiences of being a single girl child in an Indian family:

Kajal Singh is from Chhattisgarh and is an architecture student. Singh says, "Being a single girl child, I never experienced or noticed any difference between my life and my friends' life. Everything has been so smooth for me." She recalls that there was never a tag or a restriction on her. She wasn't told that being a girl she could not perform specific tasks or she was not enough. She has always been praised and treated equally to boys.

Singh admits many times when people asked her parents to try for a male child. Anytime relatives or friends visit them, it's a must for them to ask - don't you have a son? Don't you long for a son? But she is glad her parents never appreciated such thoughts and never did they have one.

Picture Credit: Laura Chouette, Unsplash

Khushi Dave, who is in her mid-20s, and a Pune local working in the Media department, is a single child too. She admits that she did feel that how she has lived her life is very different from her friends who have a brother or a sister. Since childhood, she only had her parents to talk to, and she and her parents made a bond that she doesn't see with her friends who have siblings. She also recalls that a few of her relatives always wanted a boy in the family, and the reason was to keep the family going in addition that she won't get bored.

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Khushi Pathak, a young student in her teens, feels that because of her family's circumstances, she has had to go through a few things as a single girl child that she would not otherwise have to. She reveals, "A single child must deal with numerous issues if the home's circumstances are poor. There is no way around these issues; they must deal with them independently. "

Aishwarya Birajdaar, a student of medicine from Pune who aspires to become a doctor, is also from Pune—as per Birajdaar, not having siblings hasn't made a significant difference in her life compared to her friends who have siblings. However, she adds, "Her friends with siblings have an additional support system other than their parents. They have this/these extra person/persons who love and care for them as parents. They are gifted with friends who never make them feel alone at home and whom they can talk to more frankly and share secrets they can't tell their parents."

When asked if she ever feels overburdened with her family's expectations, she stated," No, I don't feel overburdened or pressured by my responsibilities towards my family; instead, you naturally start taking up those family responsibilities. You become more independent and mature. I have never felt I had to overindulge because the will to indulge comes naturally. I enjoy indulging in activities involving the three of us (me and my parents). It makes no sense to celebrate festivals unless the three of us aren't interested."

Birajdar feels fortunate that she no more experiences any incident where society or relatives made her parents think you are not enough as a child. However, when she was very young, relatives would suggest her parents have one more child because society and relatives believed that having a boy child is more reliable.

Snehal Mutha, who is from Pune and is a journalist by profession, feels that there's a lot of difference between a child who has siblings and one who is a single child that too a girl child. She says," There are a lot of responsibilities on you from a young age. If I could have a sibling, it would have been better because being a girl child in an Indian family is very dramatic, and there's a lot of pressure and responsibility on you."

The views are the speakers' own.