What the Viral Picture of Man Killed in Terrorists Firing Tells About State Of Men's Role in Society

If you are on social media, I think you must have come across the above picture. A man was killed during crossfire between terrorists and security forces. His grandson was found sitting over his body and crying. The security forces took away the boy for safety and helped him reach his home. It was a sad image and initially I avoided looking at it. But next day when I read the above details in Dainik Bhaskar newsaper, my thoughts went in the direction of the gender angle of this tragedy.

There are a few things we can notice from this incident about the role of men in society. 

First of all, we can notice that both victims were males in this case. The man who was a contractor had taken the boy while going to see a site related to his work. Most likely if there was a girl child in his house, he would not have taken her with him. It is a common practice for people to take male children along even to suspected unsafe places but keep female ones safe. This results in more physical harm, injuries and deaths to the males, be it in childhood or in teenage. If you read local newspapers, you would find that most victims of road and related accidents are men. 

Second, the man was "maternal grandfather" of the kid. I am not sure about his family and I won't comment it personally on him. But these days there is a trend where married daughters try to live with their parents, mainly in order not to live with their in-laws. This has disturbed the balance in society and several families are suffering due to this. Old parents who have got only one son, for example, die alone in isolated houses and their bodies are discovered next day. The earlier social custom where one of the sons and daughter-in-laws always lived with the family is getting abandoned; mainly because the daughter-in-laws think about so called "equality" - "why should his parents live with us and not my parents?".

A society which was sustained mainly because of personal sacrifices by women for the welfare of the family and society at large, is under duress. Men, women, old parents, children, all are casualties of this "gender war".

We can wish the man's soul rests in peace and the family finds courage to go on with their lives. May the small boy grow up with a greater sensitivity and empathy towards others; given that he had to witness this tragedy from so close.