By  Dr. Jagdeep Kaur Kahlon

God gives us both, sons and daughters. Girls and boys are equally intelligent, and both are capable of joining various professions. Daughters should never be considered a burden and so they must never be married off at a very young age when they have not attained requisite maturity to live a responsible married life. We should celebrate  Lohri for daughters, just like for the sons. Girls must be given equal love and care. They should be given all the required good education, nutrition & proper healthcare. And they must receive from their parents, all the opportunities for progress and growth in life. When a young girl is nurtured well and gets good education, she can easily blossom into an intelligent and independent woman, who can succeed in her chosen field of work. Her interests would, then, lead to generating an adequate income, which results in a good, contented and happy life.

Parents must be made aware of giving all rights to their daughters and not to dominate them and not to discriminate against them. Getting out of the shadow of father, brother, husband and son gifts the girl or woman great self-esteem and confidence. Only then can she provide joy to her family. Once she is working and is happy with her work, she can become the source of inspiring innumerable other young women to follow suit and succeed in their professions.Such empowerment would become the catalyst for all women to live a joyous and fruitful life. They would be enabled to take equal care of their family life and professional life and shall become an inspirational role-model for all young girls, regarding learning to maintain a good balance. This is a cycle because such role-models would, in turn, become an exemplary motivating factor for other parents, who would encourage their daughters to study, along with learning household work. Such noble, commendable, worthy, good attitude of parents towards their daughters would give a great boost to the morale of the girls who would be encouraged to follow their heart and soul in studying  the subject of their choice and then to go into a profession as per their interest and capability, instead of being rushed and pushed into early marriage.

(The author can be reached at 011-91- 9876584647)