Sachin Tendulkar: Girls should be free to choose what they want to be in life

Lamenting the discrimination that girls face in India and worldwide, cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar yesterday said that their gender should be given a fair platform and above everything else, freedom.

Cricket great Sachin Tendulkar with Indian women's cricket captain Mithali Raj during a panel discussion on The Role of Sports in the Empowerment of Girls in New Delhi yesterday. Pic/PTI

"There should be a fair platform. We should not discriminate (between the two sexes)," Tendulkar said during a panel discussion organised here by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Unicef on the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child.

"While sending our girls out, we are always afraid thinking she might make mistakes but we don't feel so in the case of boys. We insulate her and don't give her the chance to use her brains and have her own experiences," said Tendulkar.

"We definitely need to protect them. We also need to provide what they want - opportunity, encouragement, guidance and above all, freedom. They should have freedom about what they want to be in life," he added.