WUNRN
Women's Studies Centre - Punjabi
University, Patiala
INDIA - THE DECLINING SEX RATIO IN
PUNJAB - ANALYSIS + VILLAGE CASE STUDY IN DHRERI JATTAN
Direct Link to Full 70-Page Study
& Data:
It is agonizing to know that the gender bias and
deep-rooted prejudice and discrimination against girl child, which have been
there down for centuries, are now found to begin in the womb itself. The girl
child in the womb faces the peril of pre-birth elimination i.e. female
foeticide. Globalization and commercialization of the medical profession as
well as human relations, propelled by large publicity in mass media, have
also played a part making the sex determination tests and aborting the female
foetus desirable.
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No place is
safe for women, not even in their mother's wombs. They are put to death before
they are born. Female foetuses are selectively aborted after prenatal
sex-determination, thus avoiding the birth of girls. As a result of selective
abortion, between 35 and 40 million girls and women are missing from the Indian
population. In some parts of the country, the sex ratio of girls to boys has
dropped to less than 800:1000. The United Nations has expressed the serious
concern about the situation.9 Recent stories show that eliminating
girl children, whether before or after birth, is a part of pattern of violence
that is linked to development paradigms that devalue women's status. In India,
welfare measures like empowerment of women, reservation in Parliament, free
education to girl child and a lot of other woman progressive initiative, do not
make sense when one looks at the cases of female foeticide. Inspite of
schooling among girls in recent decades, the patriarchal social structure
survives.
The recent
technological developments in medical practice combined with a vigorous pursuit
of growth of the private health sector, have led to the mushrooming of a
variety of sex-selective services. This has happened not only in urban areas,
but deep within rural countryside also – areas where the other dimensions of
healthcare and development are yet to penetrate. Social structures, social
pressures and rituals that are responsible for this status of women and the
brutal discrimination and violence visited on them. A woman who cannot protect
herself, who is forced to submit to and subordinate all her desires to her
patriarch, cannot protect her motherhood either. It is a hard reality that her
place and prestige in the home as well as in society, is determined, ensured
and enhanced only if she produces a male child. Increasing economic pressures
and family planning programme successes move families towards a two-child norm,
sex selective abortion becomes a means to meet the conflicting demands of a
small family and the desire for sons.The Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP)
Act 1971 and the PNDT Act, 1994, now amended known as the Pre-conception and
Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 2002 seek to regulate and prevent the
misuse of prenatal diagnostic techniques and medical malpractices which lead to
planned abortions of the female foetus. There is little evidence that suggest
that the laws relating to termination of pregnancy and prenatal sex selection
have been effective in reducing the sex selective abortions in India. Law has
not been able to achieve the intended results. This calls for a good look at
gender issues in all their ramifications in our increasingly dysfunctional
society. Against this backdrop, the aim of the study is to analyse the reasons
why the proportion of baby girls is steadily declining in Punjab by analyzing
various aspects of female foeticide in Punjab.
The findings of the
report clearly proves the hypothesis that the off-spring selection favouring
men was prevalent, thereby indicating that the life of a female is not valued
but actually despised. There was great gender disparity and the sex ratio
declined very fast during past five years. The survey was conducted with 60
selected respondents (30 males and 30 females).The reasons for declining sex
ratio are family pressures, escalating dowry, girls do not add to family
income, parents consider daughter as a burden, girls are prone to sexual
exploitation or a fear that she may not be happy after marriage etc. Solutions
required are more education awareness and the religion can play a vital role in
this regard.
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