As the people of India might know, the results of the Joint Engineering Entrance exam were declared recently. Apart for the annoying ads of the coaching institutions punctuating every TV show, news show and sports telecast, social media is alive with people congratulating one another, kids proudly posting their ranks and seniors from the various IITs jumping in to advice them.
Admist all this chaos that prevails every year, one fact surfaced. The first 132 ranks of the IIT-JEE were secured by boys. (And honestly, great work kids and kudos on achieving that and good luck for your future.) With this came a series of memes - "Girls aren't on the top list this time, 'cause here they don't get marks for handwriting" and similar stuff which annoyed me to no end. Now, I know what people would say. It was just meant as a joke and I shouldn't take offence yada yada yada. But when you look at the world around you, you can see that it is, in fact, more than just a joke. Or whatever folks call it. Girls in India always face this kind of attitude when it comes to competitive examinations like IIT-JEE. I speak more out of experience than anything when I say that they are not seen as 'future advertisement prospects' (Top rank holders) by the institutes. The professors expect very little out of them and let's not even get started about the attitude of some of their male competitors. Their high scores are viewed as 'lucky first times' and they're considered dumb if they don't do exceptionally well in the state board exams. Even if their scores are just as high as the boys'.
Also, while the boys' majority in securing high ranks in the JEE is highlighted, no one bothers to talk about how women do amazingly well in other streams. Because that would be totally insulting to the boys. 'It's a competitive examination! Stats change every year. No need to be so insulting about it.' You see what I'm talking about?
The fact that there are 132 boys in the top list shouldn't be a fact to be publicized at all, is what I say. To view them as equals is what is needed. And this one of the reasons why the country needs feminism.
The sex ratio in the country isn't so great at the moment. The percentage of girls who acquire secondary education is worse still. Despite all this, there are girls who beat the odds and made it. And we should be congratulating them for their achievements and encouraging them to never stop aiming high. Not calling the entire gender dumb like this.
Cracking IIT-JEE has nothing to do with one's gender or biology or sexuality or anything else but one's willingness to work hard for two years. Students who had the privilege to attend a good coaching class, who had the determination to work hard non stop for two years are the ones who make it. And it has got nothing to do with what gender they belong to.
Sincerely,
A really annoyed feminist.
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