Why Are Some People Left- handed?

Most of the people in the world do most of their work with the help of their right hands. But fifteen percent of the world population is left handed. On going through the history of mankind I find that many of the geniuses of the world were left-handed. The world famous sculptors Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo were both left-handed. Parents of left handed children usually feel worried about this habit. They make efforts to correct it. But psychologists are of the opinion that if a child is left-handed, he should not be forced to change this habit.

Now the question arises: Why are some people left-handers? If the body’s constitution is examined minutely, you will notice that your body is not fully symmetrical. There is a little asymmetry between the left and right parts of the body. In general, the right side of the body is slightly heavier than the left side. Our brain also has right and left parts. Even the functions of these parts are different. Commonly, the left half of the brain is ‘predominant’ over the right half. In such cases, the nerves from the brain cross over at the level of the neck and lead to the right side of the body. Such people are right-handed. Most people fall under this category. But in those cases where the right half of the brain is predominant than the left half, nerves coming out of the right brain pass onto the left parts of the body. Such people perform their functions with their left hands. That is why you must have seen some children write and even eat food with their left hand.

I always wonder why the left-handers are such a minority in comparison to the right-handers? Scientists are unable to solve this riddle till date. Certain researchers believe there is an environmental influence rather than genetic. They propose that environmental factors in the womb may influence whether we favour the right or left hand later in life. Since the number of right- handed persons is so huge, the door handles, locks, screwdrivers, motor cars, musical instruments all are designed keeping in view the convenience of the right-handers. Even buttons are fixed on our clothes on the right side for this reason only. The left- handed experience difficulty in handling all these but they somehow manage them.

As we all know that every coin has two sides, the left handers, despite facing difficulty in day-to-day life, score higher in creativity, imagination, intuition and rhythm. So even though the researchers are not able to find the reason of the left handers being a minority, I would like to suggest that the parents accept the left handedness of their child as they are at par with the right handers and if the dominance is changed at any point of time, it leads to confusion in the child’s brain.