Mard koh dard nehi hota!

"Mard koh dard nehi hota" a very old yet a very common saying. Men in our society are always expected to be stoical. Well "mards" are human beings too, they do feel pains and emotions. We often talk about the downsides of being a woman and perks of being a man. But being a man is quite toilsome.

Our society is such that it never expects a man to express his emotions, pains, sorrows. No matter how much trouble he is going through he is always expected to be rock solid. A man crying is mocked at by people in our society. Have you ever seen a men crying out loud?  Well very rarely. But why is it such a taboo for men to have a emotional breakdown in our society. Maybe because stereotypically crying is a resemblance of weakness.

It's not just women who suffer in our society men also have their own battles to fight. How often do we hear rape cases of men almost never and why is that so, because men in our society are never encouraged to talk about their issues,problems. Men also get molested,they are also victims of domestic violence. How many such stories do we see the media covering. Almost none, nobody actually cares about men issues of our society. Domestic violence against men in India is not recognized by the law,why because our society has a general perception that men can never be victimized as they are physically more strong. Nowadays,we see a lot of false cases of dowry,rape,domestic violence being filed against men. No one bothers to hear the men's part of the story. Most of the time such cases are filed just to extract money. And once such a blame is being put on a man it adversely affects his lifestyle for the rest of his lives. There are many stories of such false accusations like Rohtak sisters story which gathered huge media attention even media gave names to these girls like " Brave hearts " but in the last result turned out to be a false allegation. Apart from all these men also has to undergo a lot of pressure from family and society,pressure to start earning and look after his family.

It's definitely not easy being a man. There are times when they cannot hold their life together and often break down. Sachin Tendulkar said, "there's no shame in showing your tears", he further also added,"

"It takes a lot of courage to show your pain and your vulnerability. But just as sure as the morning, you'll emerge from it tougher and better. So I encourage you to move past these stereotypes and notions of what men can or cannot do. Whoever you are, wherever you are, I wish you this courage." Hence,  a man crying or having a emotional breakdown must be normalized among us.

Anuhita Kachari

1st Semester