Guwahati's Mriganka Majumder and her father reached out to the government of India to ensure that companies market their products to be gender-neutral.
Mriganka Majumder, a precocious 9-year-old from Guwahati, who studies in Grade 3, has zero tolerance when it comes to digesting sexism.
Literally.
When the young girl saw that a popular juice box aimed its marketing at boys for boys, she refused to drink it. As she took a firm stand against inequality, the government has gotten involved in ensuring that product marketing in the future is gender-neutral.
Mriganka’s father found himself agreeing with his daughter’s point of view when she pointed out that the back of Dabur’s Real Juice had content noting that the juice “should also make him smile”. Speaking to Hindustan Times he said, “Last Sunday, I bought a carton of Real fruit juice for my daughter. When we reached home, she came to me after a while and said she will not drink the juice as it is written in the carton that it is for ‘him’ not ‘her’.”
Initially the father-daughter duo wrote to the company directly about the content of its packaging but never heard back. Not willing to stand down, he then wrote directly to the Union Ministry.
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That was when Maneka Gandhi, the Union minister of women and child development, took matters into her hands and spoke directly to Dabur.
A responsible father, wishing for a fair world for his daughter, brought to my notice this seemingly minute yet questionable error. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/1AW5vJk5Fm
— Maneka Gandhi (@Manekagandhibjp) February 16, 2017
Dabur has now responded, noting that they did not have any intention of being gender-specific in their packaging and that they would change the content moving forward. The company said, “We will make the necessary amendments to avoid any such misunderstanding in the future.”
All thanks to one little girl who decided to stand up for what she believed in, and for girls like her across the country.
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