“In India, we have inherited the cultural legacy of having strong son-preference among all communities, religious groups and citizens of varied socio-economic backgrounds. Patriotically, patri-lineage and patriarchal attitudes manifest in women and girls having subordinate position in the family, discrimination in property rights and low paid or unpaid jobs. Women's work is limited to household duties. At the time of marriage, dowry is given by the bride's family to the groom's for shouldering 'the burden of the bride'. In many communities as custom female babies are killed immediately after birth either by the mother or by elderly women of the family to relieve themselves from the life of humiliation, rejection and suffering."
Social discrimination against women results in systematic neglect of women's health, from womb to tomb. Female infanticide and female feticide are widely practices in many States. The overall sex-ratio, at present, is favorable women in Kerala. But in Kerala also, in the 0-6 age group, the sex ratio was 963 as per 2001 census. Out of total 36.5 lakh 0-6 age group POPULATION 18'6 lakhs were male babies and 17.9 lakhs female babies. Thus, 79760 female babies and infants were missing in 2001 in Kerala. This masculisation of sex ratio is as result of female fetuses after the use of ultrasound techniques of sex determination.
The reason of female infanticide can be linked with the evil of dowry, hyper gamy, prevailing in our society. A more degrading and disparaging feature of the society has seen existing for the last two decades is the immense love for male child and elimination of female fetus. With invention of new technologies to monitor the 'Fetal' health, it was expected to be used for taking care of health of the unborn child, but became terminator of female fetus. Are female fetus being deliberately eliminated or aborted, is the question? To a great extent, yes! is the answer.
Are the technologies (ultrasonography, amniocentesis, chorian villi biopsy, foetoscopy, material serum analysis etc.) assisting in elimination? Again the answer is yes; yes, to a great extent.
Biologically, girls are stronger and with all thrust on the well being of the girl child, 1981 trends should have at least continued, but in the past 20 years the ratio has dropped considerably.
While there can be no moral or ethical justification for feticide still, it continues to be practiced. In fact sex determination which was mainly restricted to metros only now, is prevalent in villages as well. If sex determination tests are allowed to proliferate, and the elimination female fetuses allowed, the society should be ready to pay for this sin, after around two decades.
The greatest supporters of a child (whether male or female) are the natural parents. If a girl has a father who loves her and grants all her fundamentals right that girl is inviolable. Fathers often provide material comforts but deny daughters to choose their life partners.
For a daughter there can be no greater misery than to know that her father does not support her. If she was an unwanted child, the despair is compounded. To go through life and realize that she was thrust on her unwilling parents, it is a fate much worse than death. What can be more disgracing than the feeling of nothing more than a contraceptive failure?
Some months back, Delhi University Students and teachers came out of their classrooms to support the amendment to the Pre-Natal Diagnostic (PNDT) Bill which was tabled in Parliament, recommending more stringent measures against doctors who selectively abort female fetuses. The decline in ratio in urban areas is more than twice that in the rural areas. It is true that women should have the right to abort their unwanted fetus, but if the technology is being used only to eliminate the female fetus, then it should be questionable.
The root cause for elimination of female fetus is to be traced unless the evil of forced marriages, dowry, and illiteracy among the females are done away with the lives of women will not improve. Banning prenatal sex determination might add a feather in the caps of rights activists; it will not materially improve the lives of women. A social awakening for true respect to the girls is required; a lot of honest hard work with full political 'will' in this field can only solve the problem.
Written By: Nikita Jain, Std. XII, Uttam School for Girls, Ghaziabad
Social discrimination against women results in systematic neglect of women's health, from womb to tomb. Female infanticide and female feticide are widely practices in many States. The overall sex-ratio, at present, is favorable women in Kerala. But in Kerala also, in the 0-6 age group, the sex ratio was 963 as per 2001 census. Out of total 36.5 lakh 0-6 age group POPULATION 18'6 lakhs were male babies and 17.9 lakhs female babies. Thus, 79760 female babies and infants were missing in 2001 in Kerala. This masculisation of sex ratio is as result of female fetuses after the use of ultrasound techniques of sex determination.
The reason of female infanticide can be linked with the evil of dowry, hyper gamy, prevailing in our society. A more degrading and disparaging feature of the society has seen existing for the last two decades is the immense love for male child and elimination of female fetus. With invention of new technologies to monitor the 'Fetal' health, it was expected to be used for taking care of health of the unborn child, but became terminator of female fetus. Are female fetus being deliberately eliminated or aborted, is the question? To a great extent, yes! is the answer.
Are the technologies (ultrasonography, amniocentesis, chorian villi biopsy, foetoscopy, material serum analysis etc.) assisting in elimination? Again the answer is yes; yes, to a great extent.
Biologically, girls are stronger and with all thrust on the well being of the girl child, 1981 trends should have at least continued, but in the past 20 years the ratio has dropped considerably.
While there can be no moral or ethical justification for feticide still, it continues to be practiced. In fact sex determination which was mainly restricted to metros only now, is prevalent in villages as well. If sex determination tests are allowed to proliferate, and the elimination female fetuses allowed, the society should be ready to pay for this sin, after around two decades.
The greatest supporters of a child (whether male or female) are the natural parents. If a girl has a father who loves her and grants all her fundamentals right that girl is inviolable. Fathers often provide material comforts but deny daughters to choose their life partners.
For a daughter there can be no greater misery than to know that her father does not support her. If she was an unwanted child, the despair is compounded. To go through life and realize that she was thrust on her unwilling parents, it is a fate much worse than death. What can be more disgracing than the feeling of nothing more than a contraceptive failure?
Some months back, Delhi University Students and teachers came out of their classrooms to support the amendment to the Pre-Natal Diagnostic (PNDT) Bill which was tabled in Parliament, recommending more stringent measures against doctors who selectively abort female fetuses. The decline in ratio in urban areas is more than twice that in the rural areas. It is true that women should have the right to abort their unwanted fetus, but if the technology is being used only to eliminate the female fetus, then it should be questionable.
The root cause for elimination of female fetus is to be traced unless the evil of forced marriages, dowry, and illiteracy among the females are done away with the lives of women will not improve. Banning prenatal sex determination might add a feather in the caps of rights activists; it will not materially improve the lives of women. A social awakening for true respect to the girls is required; a lot of honest hard work with full political 'will' in this field can only solve the problem.
Written By: Nikita Jain, Std. XII, Uttam School for Girls, Ghaziabad
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