Can we treat our daughters with respect?

A civilization could be judged by the way it treats its women. These are words of Swami Vivekananda, an Indian thinker. Back home, Chairman Mao Zedong ensured that women were treated with the dignity they deserved by adding his weight behind a Chinese saying: Women hold up half the sky.

Much time has passed between what Vivekananda said in the late 19th century and Chairman Mao's assertion in the middle of the last century. But women are yet to get their rightful place in the two ancient civilizations. Perhaps the condition of women is worse in India than in China. That, however, is not the subject of this story.

Women, for many men, are still objects. We treat them in whatever way we think is right. We tend to forget it's they who gave us birth. We are happy in our ignorance that they are sisters, wives and daughters of men like us. And it's our daughters that were subjected to the worst form of humiliation in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, recently.