Sir,
Despite the existence of so many laws to prevent female foeticide in our country, the sex ratio in our country is not satisfactory. The Government has initiated a no of welfare schemes for the girl child such as Ballika Samridhi Yojana, Dhan Luxmi, Scheme to improve the skewed sex ratio, yet the output has not been so satisfactory. Girl children are still not allowed to be born and if born, they are subjected to gender bias, they are molested and raped and denied education and other privileges usually enjoyed by sons. While the birth of a son is celebrated, the birth of girl child creates a mournful atmosphere at homes. It is estimated that about eight fetuses have been aborted since 2001. We need girls as mothers, wives, sisters but we don’t want them as daughters through girls spend a lot of time helping their parents, especially mothers and they have proved their worth by outshining the boys in various Board and Competitive exams. Yet they suffer discrimination in many orthdox families having preference for the male child. In our own State, the sex ratio was 941 in 2001 which dropped to 859 as per 2011 census and it is counted among the states which have highly skewed sex ratio.
The need of the hour, therefore, is to take steps to prevent female foeticide to improve the sex ratio. There is a dire need to change the mindset of the people towards the girl child. They need to be reminded that if the girls had not been allowed to take birth, we would not have heard about famous women such as Hellen Keller, Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale, Marie Curie, Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Kalpana Chawla, Jane Austen, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Browning etc to name a few and the world would have been poorer without their significant contribution in the fields of literature, politics, social service and scientific development.
Moreover, education is a potent instrument of social change and efforts must be made to enroll every child in schools. The doctors found indulging in carrying Sex Determination tests need to be awarded deterrent punishment. More and more women need to be encouraged to participate in decision making bodies such as Parliament, Legislative Assemblies, Municipal Councils, University Councils, Central/State Boards of School Education etc. The girls getting merit positions in various Borad/University and professional exams. at Panchayat, zonal, district and state level should be felicitated to boost their morale and inspire other girls to emulate them.
Yours etc….
Ashok Sharma,
Flat No. 4, Housing Colony,
Udhampur
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