And while these notions are created by us, people are actually facing legal and financial challenges due to the prevalent discrimination. Recently, a Twitter user narrated her experience of going to a bank for a home loan for building a house in her parents’ name.

What happened next shows the regressive reality of India and its people. The bank officials refused her the home loan saying her brother was the true heir to her parents and only he can apply for the loan.

As a woman who has been working for 6 years now, she could not understand the policies. The bank officials further told her that even if her brother applies for the loan, her signatures will be needed. She will have to sign papers saying,

I won’t interfere in the future by asking for a part of the property.

When she asked why would they need her signatures, the bank told her that once she gets married, she will belong to her husband’s family and not her parents’.

Amaze. First, you refuse a home loan to an individual who wants to build a home for their parents, just because she is an unmarried woman, and then you go on to preach that she will lose rights over her family, her parents.

The woman tried in another bank but they also refused her the loan, or even a joint loan with her brother saying:

I can’t get a loan since my husband might not allow me to pay the installments for my parents’ house in the future.

What era are we living in? From not letting a woman take care of her parents to reminding her again and again, that she belongs to her husband’s family after marriage, the discrimination needs to end.