Ram Rattan Sharma
Millions of girls have to struggle with acute gender discrimination and distress as part of their every day experience. The existing patriarchal system leads to unequal status of women which render the latter vulnerable to exploitation oppression, deprivation and destitution. The disparity and discrimination is also reflected in literacy, health and development and working environment. The census 2011 data reaffirm that girls have no place in India’s growth story. Atrocities are perpetrated and rights are trampled, but the highest form of violence against women is to deny life in womb because of gender, what is tragically known as massacre in womb. Recently, a global perception survey has named India as the fourth most dangerous country in the world for women with high level female infanticide and sex trafficking being cited as the major reasons Afghanistan tops the 1st of the five worst states followed by democratic republic of Congo and Pakistan. This corroborated by UN Population fund report which says that upto 50 million girls are thought to be missing over the past century due to female infanticide and foeticide.
Our constitution guarantees women equality of opportunity and wage and disallows gender bias, but our society intractably continues to be slave to son preference with the wrong notion that male child is a source of bread caring and security in twilight year and female child is an economic liability. The prevalence of dowry system exacerbates the situation. As a result, the birth of male child is greeted with jubilation and that of daughter with derision. The concept leads to gender discrimination, less care for girl child in the neo-natal and infancy stage which results in to female foeticide and infanticide. Despite laws and pre-natal diagnostic techniques Act 1994 female foeticide continues to thrive in aid of unscrupulous elements.
This declining child sex ratio is a harsh reminder of India’s enduring hatered for the girl child. The macabre fact is that in India around one crore girls vanish every year through foeticide or other form of killing. Out of which more than five lakhs female fetuses are killed aborted every year. It is a matter of compunction that about twelve million girls are born in India every year, a third of them die in the first year of their life. Hence the gender bias yet again draws attention to lingering societal flaws and fetters that economic growth is not being able to correct and requires efforts by govt. and civil society for its women to ensure an equitable society with its sex ratio dismally skewed towards males changing India’s ingrained gender bias against the girl child requires determined efforts with in communities female foeticide – a great crime with concomitant neglect of girls should be tamed, other wise it will trigger catastrophic demographic consequences. Deterrent punishment should be inflicted on those who indulge in all kinds of culpable acts of foeticide and infanticide. Every person should come forward to eradicate this social evil and ensure equal status for women in all spheres of life. The need of the hour is sensitizing society to look at girl child as a boon. This is possible by ensuring women empowerment and also making women economically independent. We need to change our thinking and help create a safer and better future for the girl child.
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