In Kerala, we say we treat men and women equally. The literacy rate is high when compared to the whole of India. But are we doing everything we can to keep our women safe? Instead of asking how is your sex life, doctors ask you whether you are married or not. If you complain about weight gain to your physician, he will ask you how long have you been married and he will give you the lamest answer that you are gaining weight because you got married recently, and they mock you and stare at you when you walk down the hallways.
It is the same with pharmacies. How many women can go to a pharmacy and can get a packet of a condom without getting embarrassed? Even if we omit the condom, we are not even able to get a packet of Emergency Contraceptive Pill (ECP) from the pharmacy. They will say that they need a prescription to give you the medicine. ECP is a contraceptive pill that women use after or before having unprotected sex. Isn’t it a woman’s or a girl’s right to get the medicine on time? So every time you feel not sure or safe you need to find a doctor to give you a prescription on ECP Seriously! this is what we call literacy. If my husband or my father goes to get the tablet, the pharmacists don’t ask for any prescription, they get the tablet right away.
Don’t we have the right to own our body and are we supposed to get the medicine always from somewhere outside Kerala if we feel unsafe. This is the smallest case of gender discrimination. If I decide not to have a baby, ever no one has the right to overturn the decision, and no one can keep pressurize me to have a baby. It is our body that goes through a lot of changes, hormonal, physical, and mental. It is a decision between the partners, not a referendum for the whole family, in which most of them we would not have met them till that moment.
Isn’t it right to medication part of human rights? you can hold on to deadly medicines or which would kill a person instantly, why not give us the freedom to choose whether we want to have a child. It would be better to have a child when we are ready than to live a life of frustrated parents and then blame the kids for the rest of their life.
Annabellez 