When a person is born, the first question that everyone ask if that person is male or female. The word ‘gender’ means ‘biological sex of a person’ and the word ‘neutral’ means ‘unbiased’. In this present day scenario, gender neutrality is one of the main topics that have been discussed in our day to day matter. People are judged according to their gender and also specific characteristic or a trait of a person is identified in accordance with their gender. There are some common instances that we found in our daily life is that we think that blue colour is associated with boys and the colour pink is associated with girls. Now the question is “Why such biasness has been prevalent in our world?” And the answer can be found within us and that is we often tell our children or we often hear from our parents that a girl’s job is to look after her household work and a boy’s job is to earn money for his family. We should stop the biasness from our home first then only we can live in a world where people will not be judged according their gender.
When we talk about gender neutrality, we not only talk about the biasness between male and female but also we include the biasness that all the transgender face in their day to day life. Speaking about transgender’s role, we must know and understand that there are many instances in our mythology where their presence have been discussed and how they were treated. According to Mahabharata, Sikhandi who was a transgender also the reincarnation form of Amba, born as a daughter of King Draupad was born and brought up like a son to take her revenge from Bhisma. And also in many ancient histories, transgender were considered to be God’s blessing from heaven and were treated with outmost respect. So we can say that the biasness was not present there in our ancient times. It was started from our modern times.
And the question that comes to our mind is, ‘How we can bring gender equality in our world?’, ‘Why boys are compared to girls when they cry?’, ‘Why there should be seat reserved for girls?’, ‘Why boys are judged when they file a case for their sexual abuse?’, ‘Why the transgender being a human need to fight for their Human Rights?’ and many more.
And the reason and the root cause for all these questions are none other than we the people who are the real enemy for such problems. It is our poor mentality that we need to change. However, sexual molestation of men is rarely taken into procedure or hardly an FIR filed in this regard. It is always men who are blamed for the crime even if a woman is the culprit. There are people who call themselves feminist but being a feminist doesn’t mean to humiliate men. For instances, when a man offers his seat to a woman because he thinks she is tired but the woman call herself feminist and start abusing the man for offering his seat and she assumes that the man thinks she is weak which is completely wrong. When we as a woman wanted to bring gender equality, we must treat man as a man. We should understand that the concept of gender equality doesn’t mean to empower woman. We must give freedom to man to also express his emotion by not being judged. We must give freedom to man to feel vulnerable and also not judge them. To stop the gender biasness or to bring gender equality, we must give opportunities to those who deserve the most. If we cannot stop our nature to judge people then we should judge them according to their capabilities, efficiency and capacities and not according to their gender.
We live in a society where the role of gender plays an important role. There are some common assumptions that take place in the society about a gender of a person. If a man does not possess the quality of being masculine then he is compared to a woman and also he is humiliated by the society. And if a woman does not possess the quality of being feminine then she is compared to a man. So on one hand to another hand every gender is compared to their opposite sex rather than appreciating them for being unique in their own way. Our society needs to embrace every person as a human and if that person do not fall under the category of male or female then they face more complication by our society. They are often being ridiculed by the society and also they are not given opportunities, education and respect they deserve these as a human being. Our society needs to learn how to respect and treat everyone equally. Also being a part of the society, it is our duty to bring change in our thinking and treat everyone equally as a human being rather than differentiating someone according to their respective gender.
The term gender means biological sex of a person so it is true and there is no denying in the fact that there are biological differences among male, female and transgender. It is also true that one should accept the biological differences which are one of the major factor due to which gender biasness prevails in our world. Also biological differences should not be given that much importance which creates the problem of gender biasness. Every person has their separate individual identity which we need to embrace and encourage.
Every person must have the freedom to live their life and have the freedom to choose their own way for living their life. We as an individual have to stop judging people according to their gender. It will also eventually contribute in the development of our nation. Male, female or transgender doesn’t matters what we are and what actually matters is how we choose to live our life and how we carry on our responsibilities and obligations with full entrust. We should not forget that gender is just mere biological differences. There should not be any specific identity of being a male, female or transgender. And we should also treat everyone equally and give respect which they deserve. One should not take the advantage of his or her to do something which they cannot do by their own capabilities and capacities. Ultimately we all are human and one of the creations of God and so we need to respect the God’s creation with dignity.
This article is authored by Uttara Roy, student of B.Com LL.B (Hons.) at NEF Law College.
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