Why Do We Still Hear People Say, ‘Doosri Bhi Beti!’ Like It’s A Problem?

Even today, when I see people feeling bad for parents with two daughters, I am left angry. We still can’t accept girl children can we?

This is 2020 and I still read about so many women being tormented after the birth of their second daughter. I am my parents second daughter, born some four decades ago in a very small town. My mother tells me that many people from our social circle didn’t come see me since, ‘it was a daughter again!’ But my parents loved and still love me a lot and they have never had any issues that I was their second daughter. 

Around five years ago, when my brother had his second daughter it was the scene same as it was during my birth. Nothing had changed in the last 40 plus years and God knows if it will even change in the next 40 plus years!

Love, care, educate, and raise the daughters with confidence and then see them achieve what any boy can or may be even more! I have many examples around me where the daughters have made their parents proud, loved them, helped them, taken care of them. This includes me, the second daughter.

When I see new mothers being made to feel guilty or worthless when their second daughter is born, it irks me. The worst thing is that a number of women also lament the birth of girls. I believe, children, regardless of their gender or how many there are, are bundles of joys and blessings!

So, the next time a second daughter is born, don’t pity the parents, pass unsavoury remarks, or make the mother feel inferior. The birth of a child is worth celebration, always.

Picture credits: Still from Bollywood movie Dangal

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