The importance of education
Growing up in India, one thing that was most evident was the importance of education or thereby the lack of it. India is a divided country, it categorizes the population according to their status quo, their gender, their race, their religion, and the list goes on. Education is prioritized according to this divide, for the rich, it is inevitable, education is considered as a rite of passage. Whereas for the poor, it is a privilege, a choice and a very hard one at that – it is a choice between providing education for their offspring or providing them a meal every day. There is also the age-old bias between men and women, birth of a son is a joyous and celebrated moment in an Indian family, but birth of daughter is treated as an omen. Growing up in a female driven family where my father was the only male influence, my sister and I were lucky enough to be sheltered from all these biases, but it did not stop us from realizing the opportunity we were presented with.
