Because I am a Boy …

It is a strange topic relevant to the strange times we live in. It is said that boys are well cared for but that may be a myth. Since birth, as compared to their fairer counterparts, they are treated with an iron hand in the garb of making men out of them. In school, if found to be part of any mischief, the corporal punishment meted to them is way higher than their counterparts. Remember during school, it was only the boys who were made ‘murgas’ or ‘duck walks’ as part of punishment as opposed to the punishment of ‘standing in a corner’ for their fairer counterparts.

The boys are treated as unpaid bodyguards from a very young age, be it as a protector of their sisters or protectors of other women way older than him. You would have heard people saying ‘beta zara Goldie aunty ko ghar tak drop kar aana’ (Son, please drop Goldie aunty home), to their sons who are not even in their teens. Now who needs protection, a ten year old or a 35 year old mature woman?

The protector and making a man out of the boy is so ingrained in our society that number of boys dying at an early age is quite high in India. Over the past 3 decades, it is seen, that the sex ratio decreases as the population matures, implying that more number of men are dying at a younger age. Over the past 15 years over 20 million men have died prematurely in the age group of 15-59. The overall male to female sex ratio is on a decline from 1079 in 1991 to 1064 in 2011. A detailed analysis can be found here.

Since a young age every boy is trained to be the primary bread winner when he grows up. No wonder we are seeing women not even participating in the labour force. As per the NSSO surveys of 2009-10 and 2011-12, the labour force participation rate of women has drastically reduced from 208 to 181 per thousand women. We can imagine the immense amount of pressure being faced by boys and young men. Is it fair to treat only the men in the society as bread winners?

Let’s look at the healthcare facilities offered to boys, as per WHO, deaths due to diseases is 880 (per 100,000) population for men as compared to 780 for women. This clearly shows the lacuna in providing specialized healthcare facilities for men. We have all seen specialized healthcare campaigns for women but have you ever seen a single campaign for men? Did you know that the largest number of deaths due to communicable diseases, cancers, cardiovascular diseases and injuries are in the male population?[i] Still I have not seen a single cancer health campaign for men.

Majority of the crimes are against the male population in India; we see that around 74% of all violent crimes are against the male gender. Men are 2.7 times more likely to be murdered and 4.4 times more likely to be seriously harmed than women in India.

Crime[ii]	Men	Women
Murder (#)	25,665	9,457
%	73%	27%
Harm Not amounting to murder  (IPC 304/308) (#)	3,362	761
%	82%	18%

What is being done to control such crimes?

It is the men who have to deal with all the gender skewed laws of India such as 498A, CrPC 125, molestation, rape, sexual harassment etc…  Majority of the cases filed under these laws have been seen to be frivolous. A detailed analysis of the NCRB data can be found here and here. What is being done to stop the false / fabricated cases?

The male suicides are nearly 3 times, in certain age groups, as compared to the suicides of women in India. Majority of the reasons cited for these suicides are family problems. We can fathom the pressure men have to go through, in a society, we have created for them. A detailed discussion on suicides is given here.

No wonder the life expectancy of males in India is 62 years as compared to females at 65 years[iii]. Further, the male gender is primarily on the receiving end of all wars and lay down their lives for protecting the society. The casualties across all wars is given below[iv] –

	Men	Women
Troop Casualties in WW1	3,74,64,404	Nil
Troop Casualties in WW2	2,70,70,026	Nil
Indo-Pakistani War of 1965	6,800	Nil
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971	12,843	Nil
Kargil War	980	Nil

‘All Because I am a Boy’ …

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[i] WHO: http://www.who.int/entity/gho/mortality_burden_disease/global_burden_disease_DTH6_2008.xls

[ii] Table 3.3 and 3.4 of Crimes in India 2012, NCRB.

[iii] WHO: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/ww2005/tab3a.htm

[iv] https://standupforacause.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/rebutting-patriarchy-theory/

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