Is equality a myth?

By Aanchal Cheema

“I have a dream that my four little young children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character. “

This quote by Martin Luther King Jr is a dream that many of us have seen. But the true question is whether we’ll be able to achieve social, religious, gender, economic equality in all aspects? Or, is equality just a myth?

We talk about equality but don’t really talk about how to further implement it.. Equality simply means getting an equal opportunity in every domain, be it jobs, education, healthcare, etc. It means being treated equally, no matter where you come from, what your gender is, or the colour of your skin is, what your social, economic, religious and cultural background is.

However, this definition is only limited to textbooks.

Did  you know that: the 1% richest in the world have more than double the wealth of 6.9 billion people?

An estimated 5.6 million people die every year due to  lack of access to healthcare in poor countries.

Women earn less than 16% on an average than men.

All these facts clearly show that inequality exists in our society.

The reasons behind this inequality are innumerable. But the ground-level truth is that we don’t put enough efforts to eliminate it. The government has implemented various actions and plans to ensure equality in all arenaslike the Beti Bachao, Beti Padaho Movement, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhayan Yojna(PMJDY),  Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojna (ABPMJAY), etc.  ,but somewhere has not been able to completely implement these in the small towns and villages of the country, whose names we’ve probably never even heard. .

Hence, equality is just a myth as we come across many examples in our daily lives, where we sometimes encounter inequality. If not face it, we see it happening but not always do anything about it. The day we truly start taking action on our own and the governments all around the world ensure that what is written in the constitution becomes the reality of our society, is when India will become a developed country and we will be able to achieve equality globally.