14 years back (symbolic of Ramji’s exile), DR. Harshinder Kaur was passing by the outskirts Badshahpur village, one of the progressive village of Doaba; where she heard the wailing of a newborn child. She stopped to look where the carcasses of the dead animals were thrown…. Nothing could have prepared her for the horrors, a newborn baby –girl wrapped in her clothes was being eaten alive by dogs, torn apart. The defenseless baby destined for life was reduced to a mass of blood, and gore. What thoughts prompt people to take such an inhuman senseless act? Dr. Harshinder Kaur, a crusader for woman right’s and an activist in identifying feticide as genocide still recoils with horrors over the incident which remains fresh in her mind till date.
Gurleen Kaur, married into a progressive agricultural family of Malwa was made to abort her fetus 4 times just because they were girls. The fourth time life played a cruel trick on her, the fetus was wrongly diagnosed as a girl, and it was a boy …
We can ask innumerable questions and keep on discussing the why’s, the what and the how about female feticide till we all die but this senseless killing will carry on unabated till we all resolve , educate ourselves by empowering women and raising their status in society.
Female Infanticide is the intentional killing of baby girls due to the preference for male and from the low value associated with the birth of females. It is the worst form of abuse of Human Rights of a girl child. Women are worshipped as Shakti, Durga but speaking in practical terms men find it difficult to respect women. Destruction of a female fetus is a clear violation of human rights of a child. The Pre-Birth Elimination of Females is an immoral and cruel practice which cannot be condemned enough. Girls go missing in a society; they are denied a right to life just because she is a girl. The sad part is that this discrimination starts when the girl is in the womb, the holiest of holy places and then it carries on till the grave (that is if we let her be born). This sounds like a cliché’ but a girls right to live, blossom is nipped cruelly in the bud.
Can you sit back and ignore it? India’s population rose to 1.03 billion from 967 million in 2001 from 1997. What went down (for the first time, and it wasn’t the inflation!)Drastically, declined precipitously- was the natural proportion of females in the0-6 age range.
1961 976girls 1000boys
2001 927girls 1000boys
Latest 896girls 1000boys
And the surprising fact is that there are 60 to 100 million girls missing women due to female infanticide and sex-selective feticide which is leading to the decline in child sex-ratio. In Punjab, a prosperous state or we like to label it, a district Fatehgarh Sahib the ratio has plummeted to 754. This has the authorities worried but not overly as life goes on and we are waiting for a messiah to come and save us. Punjab has the abject distinction of being the first and only state in India where the sex ratio has gone down further.A negative trend of 875 to 793. The shortage of girls surprisingly cannot be attributed conveniently to poverty. Sons of the poorest areas have no issues in raising girls but yes, economic considerations matter. There is no pressure from political ideology or illiteracy or low education but what affects is culture combined with preference of male child. Why is a girl child deprived of her right to live?
Is it because she is born in the Holy, Promised Land of Punjab? Or is it because of religious norms, which have lost their significance and charm in the hands of the immoral interpretations of religious dictums. The time has come to debate upon and to choose between life and religious notion. It is unquestionable to say life is more sacred than any other holy customs and powerful than any established idiotic custom. The practice that a male can perform the last rite, carry on the family name, property are the main reasons of belief that a male child is so desired and wanted by Punjabis. It is ironical that she who gives birth cannot give fire to the dying person. In the absence of any social/ welfare plans boys are considered wrongly to be the sole supporters of ageing parents. The other vice is that dowry / Praya dhan is a deterrent to actually giving birth to girls. The age old tradition which is steeped in our psyche of girls being ‘prayaa’ and to provide a substantial dowry at the time of marriages is considered to be a burden. Dowry was created by women for women as a marker of their status and now life has come to a full circle where girls are being forced to abort fetuses due to family pressures and solely the practice of dowry is responsible for this merciless killing.
The Government of India advocates the two –child policy with a skewed black and white advertisement where a boy and a girl makes a happy family ; you all must remember the Door Darshan commercial from by gone age. The ancient commercial imprints on our mind pressurizing a mother to abort the second fetus if the first one is a girl. In Punjab women who fail to deliver boys are harassed by their in-laws or thrown out on the street. She is also increasingly divorced as she has n’t given birth to the heir who will carry on the family name or lineage never mind, that the precious male child grows up to be a drug addict, alcoholic or beats his old parents to get control of the property.
In homes women are valued more for their reproductive abilities as mothers, as sexual caretakers than as productive citizens in their own right. Son preference sex selection is more in wealthier families. The means to have the perfect family is within their reach and just a mere click, a scan and voila get rid of the baby like a soiled tissue paper, this is according to a leading Gynecologists words in Chandigarh. The sanctity and the sacred entity of a human life are being violated and we all are responsible collectively for this gender genocide. This word which defines this practice Gender Genocide, carried on by medical termination and further when the child is born by crude inhuman methods of lacing their feeds with pesticides, starving them to death, suffocating them with a wet towel or stuffing their mouths with black salt or urea. Sometimes the midwives also force down a few grains of poppy seeds or rice husk in their small throats. Modern technology also goes hand in hand with the terror machines (mid-wives). There is a visible proliferation of ultra-sound clinics in rural areas. The internet might not increase the knowledge or provide any benefit but the small time operators have benefitted by the so –called sex- determination kits which are available in the rural areas. Pay 50 $ or the Indian equivalent and the kit gets delivered to your address. The ultra-sound machines which were meant as a boon to save the mother and child is now the new AK -47 where a lil hint of the pretty girl is shot down; it’s the final nail in the coffin. A large number of abortions are sex-selective, a shocking 94%! Pre- Birth elimination Technique is not just limited to Punjab but is a nationwide phenomenon, not surprisingly the northern states comes on the top. A full 60 million girls are missing in India- effectively exterminated falling into a demographic black hole from which analysts fear –there will be no return. Every year 2 million fetuses are aborted for no reason other than that they are girls. Punjab’s contribution to this pool will increase by 40%.
There are no words to describe this; it is the ultimate manifestation of being cruel. How else can we justify where one is killed for the mere fact of being a girl, a female a woman. We all are together in this as we instead of condoning or condemning just turn a shoulder or make the proper noises of protest but forget it as an unpleasant memory. Loss of females is a silent, dangerous national tragedy. It is potentially de-stabilizing leading to an increase in crime and violence against women crimes. Women, Gaia the primordial Goddess of Earth is under threat. The permanent loss of women who have disappeared or have been killed is irreversible. We as a society have effectively, brutally done away with two consecutive generations. The best part of this extermination which would even give Hitler a shudder is that we don’t have gas chambers but throw them right in frontal public view, be it the dustbin or the ubiquitous wells dotting Punjab’s landscape.
We need legislation which should be effective and not the impotent spineless one which is in place which is circumvented by a few hundred under the table. The deeper problem of gender discrimination needs to be addressed. Sex-selection occurs when modernization moves ahead of sense of equity. Wake up from this slumber, the sloth which has seeped into our conscience and has turned us all into silent but equal guilty partners.
RavneetSangha
The who, what, where which way the society can change has been outlined by a panel of the society who from all walks of life answer this question asked on female feticide when a survey was carried on a social networking site.
Yudhveer Shergill need to open a school for the mother in laws,don't think there are too many men who don't want daughters
Sukhjeet Sunny Brar I believe this is related to the literacy levels, we need to educate more folks...coz basically female fetecide is a ruthless killing by doing this we are killing infinite more of our very own generation and those to come.
Surinder Dulai
@yudhveer -you got it right..spot on! dasughters bring joy a thousandfold!
@sukhjeet ji- everyone is involved..all levels of litereacy..and yes, who knows what the future holds...the ratio of girls to boys are scary..what a mess!
@Ravneet -s...See more
Romel Kaur take action on those nursing homes and hospitals which perform gender tests.. cancel their licence to practice..
Ronnie Kairon all i can say is a girl is the most beautiful thing god created if we carry on with all this by the end of the Era there wont be any men either.
Navneet Dhillon Root cause is the Social Structure. Its a male dominated society and low literacy level accentuates the complexity of the problem.The mind set has to change. Education is the solution ... Kerala is example !
Mani Virk I like Yudhveer's comment......a school needed ......to educate elder women first......we cannot blame the male dominance only behind this heinous act, contribution by females is even more shocking...
Manju Kalkat Dhatt A woman is the worst enemy of another woman ,we all need to change our mind set . Let us vow to fight it out .....
Tanu Cheema If most men are happy with daughter's , what keeps them from voicing their opinion to their mothers ? After all if their moms are trying to 'protect' their sons from the 'burden' of raising a daughter, shouldn't the sons hold their own to protect their unborn daughters ?
Sunaina Sood Bawa we all can set an example by looking after ourselves on the body mind and spiritual level ......
Navneet Dhillon It re iterates my point ... if education is not the answer... the answer is to change the Social Structure... which in turn will be possible with a better outlook ... Education is the means to the end.... not the end itself.
Preet Inder Dhillon This issue needs to be rewritten ,revocalised until d dogmatic and narrow mindset of our people undergoes a change....by ruthlessly killing d female fetus in d consecrated womb itself, we r killing an infinite mre of our generations..."her" death mourns d dilatory demise of humanity....
Yogeet Brar Ravneet...we are talking of the birth....what about after the birth....many a times its too late in the pregnancy,and the baby is carried full term, the trauma faced by the mother during that time ,,,and also after the birth ,the brunt is felt entirely by the mother and the unwanted child,repeatedly,relentlessly...i mean can you even imagine...living..at times i feel young mothers....foresee this and give in to the procedure...motherhood prevails even in the heinous act...we need to take care of both
rupinder dandiwal: this is a deeprooted issue which cannot be pinned on point , it is male -dominated society and we need to first of all change the mindset to proceed further..
ravneetsangha
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