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Society
Does Delhi Want Girls?
India in the new millennium can best be described as a female-hating
country. Not only has this supposedly civilized nation overset a universal
biological norm which gives female children an advantage over males at
birth, it has also drastically reversed the sex ratio at birth to a
shocking 927 girls for every 1,000 boys born.
Even before the shocking revelations of the Census of India 2001 have
quite settled, new information shows that educated and prosperous
communities in many metropolitan cities (including Delhi) are the
"epicenter" of this systematic elimination of unborn girl children through
sex determination tests. Worse, this practice is gaining momentum.
Census 2001 had already blown the lid off rich states like Punjab and
Haryana where the child sex ratios are a deplorable 793 and 820
respectively. But latest information reveals even lower female to male sex
ratios - the well-to-do localities in one zone of the national capital
register a figure as low as 762.
According to J K Banthia, Census Commissioner of India, the reported sex
ratio figures at birth provided by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi
(MCD) from January to June 2004 are: 762 from south Delhi, and from west
Delhi - 784 from the Rohini zone, 792 from Najafgarh zone and 808 from
Narela zone.
In central Delhi, the child sex ratios are 805 for the central zone, 811
for Sadar Paharganj zone and 850 for Karol Bagh zone; while in east Delhi,
the figures are 806 for Shahadara north zone and 833 for Shahadara south
zone.
Banthia warns against waiting for the next Census in 2011 to know the
impact of measures being taken to arrest the deteriorating female sex
ratio. Monitoring the sex ratio at birth has become very important.
"Instructions have already been issued in this regard by the Registrar
General of India to all the Chief Registrars of Births and Deaths in the
states for monitoring the monthly sex ratio at birth and disseminating
this data back to the public and governments," he says.
But is this really enough? Not so, feel experts and activists who
converged recently at a workshop in Goa to discuss strategies to counter
the proliferating practice of sex selection and female feticide. The issue
needs to be studied in the context of globalization, industrialization and
fundamentalism, all of which have devalued females, observes leading woman
activist Abha Bhaiya of Jagori, a Delhi-based women's NGO.
"Industrialization and mechanization have marginalized women and girl
children's participation in agriculture, and other means of livelihood
have become almost negligible. Thus, she has become even more unwanted to
her parents and to society," adds Dilip Kamat of Parivartan, an NGO in
Belgaum, Karnataka. The workshop was organized jointly by the Centre for
Advocacy and Research (CFAR), and the Centre for Women's Development
Studies (CWDS), both based in Delhi.
One of the major problems in bringing the perpetrators of female feticide
to task is that the practice is often described (and therefore
camouflaged) as a "social evil". This downplays the fact that it is a
crime and that it is punishable by law. "Doctors have deliberately tried
to trivialize female feticide by engaging the thinking intellectuals of
this society to look at it as a social evil," says Dr Puneet Bedi of
Apollo Hospital, Delhi.
Medical technologies have played a crucial role in reinforcing negative
patriarchal systems that demand male heirs. Amniocentesis was first
introduced in India in 1975 by the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS), Delhi for detecting congenital deformities in fetuses. By the
mid-1980s, it was being largely misused to determine the sex of the unborn
child and to carry out sex-selective abortions in Maharashtra, Punjab and
Haryana. In subsequent years, the practice spread to the rest of the
country.
Under tremendous social and family pressure to deliver a male child, most
often the woman herself opts for pre-natal sex determination and decides
to get rid of the female fetus. She does so at considerable risk to her
own life as such abortions are usually performed in the fourth or fifth
month of pregnancy. "Women are forced to internalize the pain and live
with this crime," says Bhaiya. "The women's movement needs to review its
strategies and look at this issue in a multi-causal way. The content of
education for girls has to have a political context which can empower
women," she emphasizes.
Following the publication of the provisional Census 2001 results, there
has been tremendous activity in the legal, social and governmental spheres
to control sex-selective abortions. Although the Pre-Natal Diagnostic
Techniques Act (PNDT Act) came into effect on January 1, 1996 it was never
seriously implemented in the 1990s. However, the law was amended in
February 2003 after a public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme
Court.
The new Act, renamed Preconception and Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques
(Prohibition of sex selection) Act ensures that no technology - whether
existing or likely to arise in the future - can be misused to detect the
sex of the unborn child or to manipulate the sperms or ova to facilitate
the birth of a male child.
The unique feature of this Act is that mobile ultrasound machines have
also come under its purview. Also, the Act absolves the pregnant woman of
any crime, but holds the radiologists and gynecologists responsible,
explains Tanika Singh of Lawyers Collective, Delhi. It also takes into
account the role of the immediate family members in pressurizing the woman
to undergo sex determination.
Although the amended PNDT Act and the instructions issued by religious
priests in Punjab against sex-selective abortions are moves in the right
direction, more social action is required, stresses Banthia. One of the
important recommendations of the National Conference of Chief Registrars
of Births and Deaths held in January 2003 was that data on sex ratio at
birth must be monitored.
Unfortunately, very little information has been compiled, as most states
are yet to take action for regular monitoring of this important indicator,
regrets Banthia. Available data for 2002 from 17 hospitals in Gujarat, for
instance, reveals the sex ratio at birth to be 100 girls to 122 boys. For
the unborn girl child, the situation in many states is critical. "The
'Save the Girl Child' campaign needs to be further supported actively by
all agencies within and outside governments to restore the balance of
sexes," he underlines.
"Doctors as a community are actively involved in this crime of female
feticide", says Dr Bedi. He adds that the PNDT Act must be effectively
enforced to severely punish doctors who act in cohorts with families to
eliminate the female fetus.
– Nitin Jugran
Bahuguna
December 19, 2004
By arrangement with
Womens Feature Service
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