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Abstract
Women despite their prominent social role are given a secondary position everywhere. In a democratic country like India girls are worshipped as Goddesses on one hand and humiliated as unwanted beings on the other hand. In the short story ‘Girls’ written by Mrinal Pande, the author highlights how Indian society takes women for granted and conditions them to accept a secondary role in the family. The story is narrated from the point of view of an 8 year old young girl. We can find three main points of view in the story - first, the point of view of the older generation of women, second the point of view of a young girl - our narrator and third, the author’s point of view. The story puts forward the issue of gender-bias towards girl child. There are three daughters in the story of representing three different victims of gender discrimination in the society. The eldest daughter is silent and plays the role of a girl in the male dominated society, the younger daughter(the narrator of the story) is rebellious, even at a young age she is very much conscious of the discrimination against the girl children. The youngest one is too young to understand what is going on in and around her. The narrator's mother is expecting a fourth child and this time she hopes that she would give birth to a boy. The mother is always irritated by these daughters, especially the honest and assertive middle child, the narrator. This paper discusses how girls are treated in Indian society as told in the short story ‘Girls’ by Mrinal Pande.