How Normalized Are Your Faults?

There are few problems in society that cannot be done away very easily. These problems have stuck with us for generations together and one common reason why most people fail to acknowledge such a problem exists is because how normalized we've made it look in our society.

Normalizing an issue essentially occurs when the issue is constantly found in society that we've grown up to believe that this is how society is, without questioning these injustices. We've all adhered to what the society has told us at some point in time. A few of these issues might not even seem as an issue in your eyes, it would rather look like a normal occurrence.

A child growing up in an abusive household tends to normalize violence and domestic abuse. He/She grows up with the thought that hitting or abusing each other is normal in a family and he/she will most likely repeat the same behaviour when living in a family of their own. This is how domestic violence and abuse is prevalent for generations together. We've normalized the fact that lower menial jobs are meant to be occupied by the less dominant caste in the society and if suppose they move up the social ladder, we find it hard to accept them as one of our own because we've been normalized to believe that only the dominant castes have the skill set to occupy high positions.

The scary reality around us is that a major portion of the rural society has normalized the rape culture in India. When interviewed, they gave out answers like how a woman being raped is something that happens in society everyday and it does not really seem like a problem to them. Now the women and the men of the household grow up with these beliefs which is extremely problematic to a woman's safety in that village or in that rural setting.

We've normalized the fact that women always take care of the household while men become the bread winners of the family, thereby bestowing them with the higher authority in the family. We've normalized the illiteracy of women by saying that women don't need an education because they're ultimately going to take care of only the household. For some of you these realities might seem outdated but you'd be surprised to know how many families in both urban and rural India follow this as a normal practice for generations.

We've normalized the fact that women must not step out of the house during late night hours, indicating their safety as a reason. Since we've normalized this attitude for generations together, only very few women realize how this attitude curbs their mobility in a society, thereby preventing them to achieve the same positions as their male counterparts. We've normalized the practice of giving dowry, indicating it as a prestige issue. Due to this normalization, you will find most families in India sinking in debt after marrying away their daughters.

We've normalized so many other forms of injustices in our daily lives and only increased awareness about all these issues will actually give us the strength to voice out the truth. Let us not pass on these toxic attitudes and behaviours as normal, to our future generations.