www.dayafterindia.com



Home

National

States

International

Editorial

Open House

Business

News Makers

Sports

Society & Health

Interview

Silver Screen

Cover Story

Subscription

Advertising

Archives

Contact





Millions of girls are missing from Indian population. The sex ratio of the country has altered consistently in favour of boys. And the country fails to prevent the social stigma of infanticide and foeticide. Saswat Panigrahi of the DayAfter takes a look at the alarming facts and figures.
Nearly 40 million girls are missing from the Indian population. According to the data compiled by Registrar General of India, child sex ratio is 927 females in every thousand males as on census 2001. The ratio was 945:1000 in 1991. The figure has dropped significantly from 976 girls in every thousand boys in 1961. In some parts of the country, the sex ratio has dropped to less than 800:1,000.

The sex ratio in India has altered consistently in favour of boys since the beginning of the 20th century. Its effect has been visible in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Maharastra. In Delhi the statistics is defunt. In the capital city, out of 1000 children 216 are girls. In Delhi’s ultra well-to-do localities of South Delhi and West Delhi, the child sex ratio is a shocking 762 and 784 respectively as reported by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in 2004. Other zones of the Capital have a ratio no higher than 850.
India is failing to prevent large-scale female infanticide and foeticide, according to a UN report. As a result, says the UN’s World Population Fund, India has one of the highest imbalances in the world between males and females. The Fund says that the low status of women in Indian society is mainly to blame, and criticizes of India for its lack of commitment to tackling gender inequality.
More generally, demographers warn that in the next twenty years there will be a shortage of brides in the marriage market because of the adverse juvenile sex ratio, combined with an overall decline in fertility.
From 1981 to 1991 one crore males were in need of females. At present 37 millions males are in need of females. If the trend continues in the next 10 years nearly 14 million from the productive age group woman will be missing and 23 million males will look for partners.
According to media report young girls from Assam and West Bengal are kidnapped and sold into marriage in neighbouring Haryana.
The alarming facts and figures carry a signal, which is crisp and clear. The sex ratio in India is topsy-turvy. Sex determination tests are illegal but common. Even many families abort female fortuitus to avoid the load of dowry. It’s not just poor rural families, foeticide is even rampant amongst some rich urban families.
Yes the scenario even looms larger. If the trend continues, India will witness a catastrophe, when the female foeticide has felled the female population like the Bollywood film “Matrubhoomi,” a group of barbaric sex-starved men in Bihar marry one woman and brutalizing her night after night.
This may be a figment of a Bollywood film-maker Manish Jha’s imagination, but the necked truth is not far away. Yes the female sex proportion is falling in a diminishing rate and the sex inequality is in the rise. And in such a topsy-turvy position the film is a timely representation for the country plagued by two of the most horrific crimes against women: female infanticide and female foeticide.
India has a long history of infanticide. In 1987, when India’s first census survey was conducted by the British, the scope of the problem of infanticide became visible. The sex ratio was 940 females to 1000 males in Pre-independence India. The British passed an act banning infanticide called Female Infanticide Act 1870. But the act was difficult to put into practice because most birth happened at home, and registration of births was not common. Hence the number of mysterious child mortality cases remained unaccounted. Technology changed the mode of getting rid of a girl child. Female infanticide took the form of Female foeticide.
Female foeticide, which is a two-step practice, includes the detection of the unborn baby in the womb of the mother and the abortion of the girl child. Female feticide is a gross violation of many a rights. It violates the right to life of the unborn child. It is a very strong manifestation of violence against women, a violation of their human rights. Many women suffer from psychological trauma as a result of forcibly undergoing repeated abortions.
In 1994, the Government of India passed the Pre- conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques [PNDT] (Prohibition of Sex Selection) with the aim of preventing female foeticide. The implementation of this Act was slow. It was later amended and replaced in 2002 by the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques [PDT] (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act without ever having been properly implemented. On the other hand Medical malpractice in this area is flourishing, and bans on gender selection in many a parts of India has a very negligible effect.
Out of 15 millions abortions all over the world in 1997 India claims 4 millions. And 90% of the abortion argues the cause for Girl Child. Yes there is a trafficking going on, which contributes for the declining girl child sex ratio. And amid the trafficking the much-talked efforts to maintain a ‘balanced sex ratio’ is a night-mare.
It’s a question of liberty, dignity of woman and children. Who are the people those who snatch away the life of the child from her mother’s womb. The psychological diseased- stricken mind set of the family members look forward a male child. They do not even care to kill a child before its birth. And the nexus of doctors, with the touts adds enough fuel to it.
Many campaigns have been running in highlighting the importance of the girl child in a society, where baby girls still neglected. But still the specter which has been haunting India is that of the vanishing girl child. Census statistics show that millions of girls who should have been citizens of India today are missing. Neither the PNDT Act, 1994, nor its reincarnation, the PDT act 2002 has had any impact.
To what can we attribute this abysmal state of affairs? The brick and mortar system of addressing sex inequality! Excuses about shortage of manpower and lack of expertise! Not a single case of sex determination has apparently been charged and punished. And the reason: Lack of circumstantial evidence.
“The sharp decline in sex ratio is a matter of serious concern. Every child has the right to survive. The mother has no right towards making decision to have or not to have the child. The child is not only belonging to the mother. It belongs to the generation to come. Female feticide snatches away the right to birth,” said Girija Vyas, Chairperson National Commission for Women, while talking to Day After. “Plans are not probably implemented,” she said. “The woman commission has demanded a review of the PNDT act. There is a pressing need of right implementation and the essence of monitoring the implementation,” she exhorted.
According to Prasanna Hota, Secretary at Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, female forticide is greater threat then HIV Aids. “The present prosecution mechanism is not good enough to tackle the menace,” he said.
“Population policy is not about stabilization, but about balanced sex ratio. Something we are loosing. Female feticide is the key to the growing problem,” said Ranjana Kumari, Director Centre for Social Research. “There is need for awareness and sensitivity among the people regarding the issue of Female feticide. The mindset of the people should be changed to understand the growing problem,” she said by adding that “The PDT and PNDT act should be modified and to be ensured for not being misused. The punishment should be much more serious.”

Others
Prediction for Rahul Gandhi