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Misguided martinets and miserable bundles of joy ��� II
Female infanticide is on the decline across the country. The obvious reason is its replacement by sex-selective abortion. Thanks to availability of modern technology, families of the girl baby need not wait till childbirth to perform the ���murder���.
 
Sun, Apr 27, 2008 13:00:33 IST
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IT IS no secret that the Amma Thottil (cradle baby) scheme – brainchild of former CM and billionaire, Jayalalithaa of Tamilnadu has been an utter failure. She calculated that placing a cradle in front of district hospitals – and giving mega advertisements, featuring celebrities to encourage mothers deposit their unwanted infants could be more profitable than tackling the root cause of the female infanticide and abandonment!

Yet, union women and child development minister, Renuka Chowdhury, does not want to learn from the gigantic scandal. She recently said, “We want to put a ‘Palna’ (cradle) in every district headquarters … if you don’t want a girl child, leave her to us. We will bring up the child.”

When asked if her scheme would not encourage families to abandon their girl children, Chowdhury said, “It doesn’t matter. It is better than killing them.” The minister’s zeal is obviously not shared by the women concerned, who are nevertheless bothered about their babies’ fate. Death, they think, is more honourable than the risk of being devoured by criminal rings thriving in such government schemes and even lusty cops. It is also true that female infanticide is on a decline across the country. The obvious reason for that is, it has been replaced by sex-selective abortion. Thanks to availability of modern technology, there is no need to wait till childbirth to perform the ‘murder’.

The wisdom of considering something that any rational person would do to secure his/her offspring’s honour and future, without clashing with anyone else’s rights, as a crime can be ‘constitutional’ according to learned bureaucrats and judges. But, it can never be acceptable either to Jaiswals or to Sharmas, who are the concerned party. While the Sheelas will simply treat any number of summons under code of criminal procedure (CRPC)-Section 317 from any court with utmost contempt, the Sharmas will have a hearty laugh at the ‘honourable’ powers-that-be, who think they can prohibit ocean waves from banging the shores without the ministry’s consent!

Wise guys of the women and child development (WCD) ministry have proposed a ban on openly available home gender testing kits, used to conduct online sex determination tests. They probably got the inspiration from the brain flash of a former ‘scientist’ president to squander public money for blocking access to GoogleEarth for Indian surfers, which would ‘compromise’ national interests! Such nonsensical laws can achieve nothing more than arming some a few thousand minions with powers to harass common people.

According to an official survey concluded in April 2007, more than 11 million babies, mainly unwanted girls, live on the streets or lie abandoned in dirty children’s homes in India. With her misplaced optimism, “We will bring up the children”, Renuka will only be adding more Khushis to swell their ranks!

A cursory analysis at reliable statistics, rather than limited personal observation focussed on pockets will expose that the big scare raised about diminishing female population has been blown out of all proportions. Misdirected moralists, brainwashed by a governance system that is keen to distract people’s attention away from substantial issues, are only playing into the hands of these charlatans. The so-called ’atrocities committed on unborn girl children’ in pockets of North India has lots of takers among fashionable women. Actually, such a situation, even if it becomes widespread, can cause worry only to male chauvinists and not feminists. Here is why:

The value of any entity – person, product or service – in any society is determined by its availability versus its perceived demand. If there are more eligible girls in a society, compared to the number of eligible boys, the boy gets a wider option to select from surplus girls. Similarly, wherever boys outnumber girls, it is the girls who get treasured more and enjoy a better choice. For example, post-WW II, Japan had a grave shortage of men because of huge war casualties. For many years, there were numerous Japanese girls, who were unable to get married despite desiring to. Even mediocre men were able to attract good-looking and intelligent women.

However, there does not seem to be much truth in the battle cry of dwindling female population in India. Of course, there are 1060 males for every 1000 females (in the significant age group of 15-65); but, that is not too much off the world average of 1030 males. The ratio of 1060 males per 1000 females is approximately the same in China and Malaysia, while male population in Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) is much above this figure. There are 1330 and 1550 males respectively for every 1000 females in these countries. Only in Russia and its colonies and in Brazil is the male population significantly less than females – at 940 and 980 males per 1000 females.

States like Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh have 1040 males per 1000 females in the 15-65 age group, slightly above world average. Delhi and Punjab have 1150 males and Haryana has the maximum number 1160 males/1000 females and are considered worst examples of sex ratio imbalances. But, these alarming figures of ’overpopulation of males due to the rampant killing of pre-born or just-born girl children’ are nowhere near the situation in West Asia.

Admittedly, the sex ratio is significantly skewed in several pockets. Due to the imbalance, several educated girls from Kerala have landed in virtually uneducated Jat households in Haryana. That can surely be not objectionable to any thinking person. After all, they are able to lift the men and women of the region out of the traditional well of ignorance. Similarly, Patel families in pockets of Saurashtra, where boys outnumber girls, trek to Central and South Gujarat to ’buy’ brides from tribal communities. The ‘reverse-dowry’ ranges between Rs 50,000-100,000. Sex ratio imbalances across the world tend to get self-corrected by the interaction of various such factors over a long period. Apart from the enormous social benefits, such cross-alliances place the female in a more dominant position. That should be worrisome to male chauvinists and not feminists!

As this article was being written last weekend, a newborn came back from the jaws of death in small town Samastipur in the eastern Bihar. Residents observed three stray dogs barking furiously at a mound of mud, under which she had been buried and left to die. Even as the police is reportedly performing the useless chore of looking for the girl’s mother, she has been adopted by a couple in the area.

Hopefully, the adoption will not run into rough weather due to harassment from WCD ministry and the foster parents will mitigate her misery till she is strong enough to face life.

The tragedy of long-term misery through abandonment and, to a lesser extent, the cruelty of infanticide are evils plaguing the society. The only sensible way to tackle the problem is to ensure that a baby is not unwelcome. He/she must really be a treasured bundle of joy to his/her parents. Not to elite activists, or committed social workers, running orphanages with missionary zeal, even though they do serve a purpose.

For that, ‘passionate’ leaders like Chowdhury need to stop running after snobbish seminars. There is a crying need to make prenatal testing affordable and accessible to all. Technological advances in contraception, medical termination of pregnancy (MTP), pre-natal diagnostic techniques (PNDT) etc must not be subjected to the whims of misguided martinets and bone-brained regulations that only breed scams. In fact, that may not gobble up huge budgets. The private sector could be roped in to offer them at subsidised rates as a matter of corporate social responsibility.
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| 22 January 2010
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The false stories in Media by feminists claiming "women as victims" has scared the society. Now, Govt wants to bride people to have girl child without creating a powerful context.A boy has 3 times more chance to be kidnapped, 4 times more chance of getting murdered and 3 times more chance of getting killed in accident compared to a girl.If people knew this, they would have been prefering boys. The feminist's false propaganda is killing the girl child.there were 1830 convictions of dowry deaths in 2006 where as similar murders(extortion+DV ) of women by husbands in US were about 1000 in US. If US had population same as that of India, then 4000 women would have been getting murdered compared to 1830 in India.By the way, it is nature's law to have 5% more boys born than girls. The sex ratio at birth in US is 956 girls for 1000 boys.The vicious circle of alarmism created by feminists is making the situation worse.
 
 
| 29 April 2008
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I quote: "States like Kerala and Arunachal Pradesh have 1040 males per 1000 females in the 15-65 age group..." From where you get these statistics? Kerala has 1040 females for 1000 males, not the other way round. And your other statistics also making confusion. Stick to the proportion starting 1000 males.
 
 
| 27 April 2008
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(1) Human Sex Ratio INTERNATIONALLY is the ratio of males to females, not the other way. (2) Stats are from The World Factbook 2006 of CIA (3) Ratios quoted are for age group 15-65; Ratio at birth or 0-6 age group cannot be taken because men have weaker immune systems than women possibly due to fewer infection-fighting T-cells. (In US, 25% more newborn boys die than girls and teenage death in boys is double that of females. It can be no better in India) (4) Hearsay evidence from small pockets may be widely different. But, any such imbalance tends to be corrected with socially healthy measures, including cross-alliances/migr ation. The point made is that law & coercion cannot be used in civilised societies for the correction EVEN if imbalance does exist. The campaign against sex-selection is thus a big racket that only benefits parasites and harasses ordinary people.
Natteri Adigal | 29 April 2008
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