India Reflection on one of female characters in Witness the Night - Essay Example

Reflection on Simran in “Witness the Night.” Simran Singh is a social worker who returns to her birthplace of Jullundur, in Punjab State after being in Delhi for long. Simran returns as a consultant assisting the police in a horrible case involving a fourteen-year-old girl, Durga Atwal. The young girl is suspected to have poisoned thirteen members of her family and then set her family’s home on fire, after wounding some family members. Simran Singh is in her forties and not yet married. Further, she does not desire settling down.

She drinks, smokes, gives her opinions, and does not yearn fitting in with Jullundur’s life, despite this being her hometown. Simran understands the culture, the history, and the people of Jullundur, and she equally knows that this culture is a part of her. Simran’s personal scars do not deter her from attempting to correct the injustices Durga Atwal faces in the hands of the police officers. Simran understands her imperfections, and she admits this when she says, “we all have our little flaws.

Mine has always been to stride in where others feel it shrewder not to.” India has one of the world’s worst gender ratio with increased preference for male children over the girls. Religious, economic and cultural reasons are the basis for male preference. The boy child is considered as a king while the girl is nothing (Walia 1). Simran’s gender forces her to be quite rebellious in order to survive in this society. The Indian society expects Simran to be loyal and obedient to men; she is supposed to have married by this time, and because of her character, she is considered an outcast.

Simran knew she would face these challenges following her decision; she knew the society would look down on her. Because of this, Simran avoids the society she is supposed to associate with; she looks down on people who look down on her. Simran becomes extremely blunt to the society’s thought on her and decides to live her life the best way she knows. Simran’s war of life enlightens several awful issues that happen to women and girls in the Indian society. There is a relation between Simran’s choices and decisions to several recent happenings in India.

It is apparent that the increase in wealth and literacy levels in India has contributed to the experienced crisis of missing girls. Increased selective abortions in India are high among educated and affluent families (Yardley 1). The research further reveals that better educated, high-income women families were likely than poorer females to abort a girl, particularly during a second pregnancy if the first child was also a girl. Simran falls in this category and looking at these statistics, she would rather choose to be single and live her life than get involved in a family situation that might force her to make this wrong decision.

There is a likelihood that Sirman choice to remain single was influenced by the patriarchy that is heavily entrenched in the Indian society, with the view of girls as unwelcomed visitors in homes (Gierstorfer 1).Following the recent unfoldings and the problems that women have endured in the Indian society, Simran’s choice to be rebellious are justifiable and shed more light on the fate of Indian women. Works CitedDesai, Kishwar. Witness The Night. New York: Penguin Books, 2012. Print.Gierstorfer, Carl.

While Indias Girls Are Aborted, Brides Are Wanted. CNN 2014: No Pages. Web. 12 May 2015.Yardley, Jim. As Wealth And Literacy Rise In India, Report Says, So Do Sex-Selective Abortions. The New York Times 2011: No pages. Web. 12 May 2015.Walia, Shelly. India’s Preference For Sons Has Created A Nation of Tiny People. QUARTZ India 2015: No pages. Web. 12 May 2015.