Indian girls and their overprotective parents

To this day, 2016, an era where meenachis are working, independent and do everything for themselves but staying with their parents are strictly forbidden by them from going to movies at night, not even at 9 pm. These meenachis may yearn to travel overseas all by themselves, learn to survive on their own in alien lands, satiate their wanderlust but are not allowed to. And it’s worst if the meenachi is the youngest in the family, the baby of the family - what she says doesn’t seem to get respect at all just because she was born last, hence doesn’t know better. I know some parents who don't allow their daughters to stay over at their girl friend's house even though they are above 18 and 21.

Meenachis have been respectful and pandering to their parents’ restrictions, being as altruistic as ever. Knowing that their safety is their parents’ paramount concern, these meenachis, although feel suffocated and hurt, just heed to their parents as they don’t want to hurt them.

Parents like this need to understand one thing - potte pulaiya pothi pothi valekunum nu kaalam malai eri pochi (the era where a girl child needs to be brought up in a protective way has gone asunder). By restricting your daughter’s freedom for the sake of her safety is like encouraging criminals to do what they do with subtle validation. Instead of telling your daughters to not go out at night or travel alone, tell her to equip herself with the skills needed should she get into trouble when being out alone. Tell her to learn martial arts, learn to change a flat tyre, tell her that the world is her oyster and give her confidence that she is able to keep herself safe under any circumstance. Please don’t rob her confidence, kill her interests and limit her steps. What you are doing is not keeping your beloved daughter safe but curtailing her capacity and capability.

It has absolutely no meaning if you are proud and share the news of Uma Devi, our first Indian Tamil lady LRT train driver, astronaut Kalpana Chawla and Dr Mahaletchumy Arujunan but you won’t let your daughter step out of the safety zone you created for her. And that safety zone isn’t foolproof either - Jisha was raped and killed in her own home in broad daylight. Dangers are inherent in this world, there is no place or time that are completely safe for anyone.

Indian girls are making headway in dangerous jobs or jobs deemed only fit for men. If their parents were strict and forbidding of girls going out at night or traveling alone, what kind of progress will our community make? Look at the bigger picture. The world is not only full with dangers, it’s also beautiful and full of learning opportunities. What makes a skilled person is the dealing with the dangers while deriving lessons from them.

Don’t restrict your daughters, liberate them and trust them, that they can have their autonomy and deal with any problems and troubles that come as a package in life. Being safe should be a sensibility, not paranoia. And, don’t ask any adventurous, outspoken or going against the grain meenachi, ‘Neenge seiyaruthu unga veetukku teriyuma?” (Does your family knows what you’re doing?) when you don’t ask that sort of questions to machas who drink and fight in public, it’s not your prerogative to ask such questions to meenachis as described above. And, do watch Queen, starring Kangana Ranaut. Open your eyes as big as the world.