Rare; yet so common

I read an amazing news in one of the daily newspapers that many sons were given birth with a desire to get a daughter. In a patriarchal society like ours where son receive the major attention and daughters are neglected; the news is rare in its kind. The importance of son has always been the major issue though there are thousands of I/Ngos working for women empowerment and organizations working on family planning. Despite the initiative of encouraging people to regard sons and daughters as equal; discrimination based on gender is still prevalent in our society but these news really pestered me to think is the status of woman as it is portrayed? And are sons and daughters treated equally?

I pondered a lot in this issue but could not draw conclusion on this news. The couple just wanted the daughter so they gave birth to number of sons. In this case as well though the importance is given to a daughter; there will have some effects on the health of the mother. Where are the so called gender activists working in our country to raise voice against this and where are the family planning workers to give advise on whether you give birth to many daughters or sons the health of the mother will have the same effect. The media is praising the couples but no one is looking at the other side of the coin. If a girl is being given preference then is that being treated as equal; what about the health of the mother; the girl child is preferred and will get attention from the family but what about the sons; whether they will be discriminated or not by their parents. Gender activists should not only confine themselves with the issue of women empowerment but should also work for other gender as they also deserve the right to be treated as equal.

Though the deed of this particular couple is rare but the affect is common; in many cases when son were given preference the daughters were looked down upon and in this case sons are neglected. I wonder why our society cannot just think about equality rather discriminating one sex or the other. Are we not capable of appreciating what we have rather than looking for or going after those we do not have/possess? Cannot we respect things as they are? Do we always need to appreciate those which we do not have and criticize those we have?