The crime of being a dusky girl- Questioning the creator! Are we?

The crime of being a dusky girl- Questioning the creator! Are we?

“Mrs Sharma padhai toh theek hai par rang zara gora hota toh beti aapki perfect thi” (Mrs Sharma your daughter might be highly qualified but I am a judgemental freak and the only thing that matters to me is the colour of her skin). These phrases and ideologies are very common in our society and people have accepted it just like they accept the air, without questioning and without thinking, only the former decision is a stupid one. The most annoying part is that even the girl believes what she is told and her confidence suffers a major blow right from the very start. Even the kids aren’t spared and the society’s auto suggested notions of beauty are fed to them and they grow up with these wounded outlooks and pass on the same to their kids. As a result, the society’s notion of beauty becomes a very conventional and hollow one. It’s highly unfortunate how the color of one’s skin is way more important than the person that is beneath it. It’s the indication of a shallow mentality that never tries to look beyond the apparent. Even the matrimonial advertisements seeking “gori lambi ladki” ( fair, tall girl) are an eyesore. The specifications are intolerable. What’s horrific is that people demand “higher dowries” to get married to a dusky skinned girl. How shameful is that! I am not saying that a fair girl lacks any capability or isn’t a good person but neither is a girl whose skin is a shade dark for the darkness engulfed society of ours. It’s absolutely a gift of the dark ages to our so called modern society where a girl still battles the color discrimination meted out to her. Be it her own family or the house of her in laws her color either becomes everybody’s favorite joke on her or the base of taunts directed at her. Some even do that unintentionally but as humans beings we at least need to be considerate of other’s emotions instead of hitting where it hurts the most. And for those who do such things intentionally, they should be left to divinity’s mercy (if at all he would consider being merciful to them). dark skin girl When a girl is born, with her comes into existence her continued struggle with the various biases she faces, and if she is born with a darker shade her struggle only doubles and she finds her dark color to be like some curse. She is actually made to believe that it is some sort of a shortcoming to have dusky skin and this generated feeling of inferiority is used against her in many ways. It’s the responsibility of the girl herself as well as her parents and the people of her family to make sure that her color is never a reason to question her abilities. The girl needs to believe in herself and take pride in whatever God has bestowed her with and it’s not anything that makes her inferior and it’s up to the girl to direct her strengths towards the betterment of her abilities rather than brooding over her color or allowing people to take advantage of it in any manner or in any phase of her life. In a place like India, the life of a dusky girl is marred by social prejudices at every step of her life. A dusky girl cannot be the princess in the school play, a dusky girl cannot welcome the chief guest for a college event, a dusky girl’s parents should be prepared to pay any amount of dowry to get their “less fortunate” daughter married, a dusky girl should not mind the taunts because after all she has committed the crime of being born dusky. We as a society need to ponder over the shallowness of our ideologies when we judge people on the basis of their color. It’s like devaluing what the creator has created.     ————–

 About the Author: This article is contributed by Uroosa Wani, our intern.
Ishita Kapoor

Ishita Kapoor