WUNRN
INDIA - MISSING GIRLS - UN REPORT
STATISTICS SHOW INCREASING GENDER BIASED SEX SELECTION IN INDIA
India’s
preference for male babies/children has reached new statistical heights.
July 31,
2014 - The UN Report
‘Sex Ratios and Gender Biased Sex Selection: History, Debates and Future
Directions’ points out that girls-only families constitute just
2 per cent of families in states like Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.
This figure
draws attention to another dimension of the shocking Child Sex Ratio (CSR) – the number of
girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of 6 -- in the
country. Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan have traditionally recorded the worst Child
Sex Ratios in the country, prompting demographers and gender specialists to
describe them as ‘India’s Bermuda Triangle’ i.e. where girl children seem to be
disappearing without a trace.The UN study now shows that there are very few
families in these states that do not have sons.
Other areas
of concern too are highlighted. States that were once acclaimed for being more
girl child-friendly are changing for the worse. In the past, India’s
North-eastern states had more even Child Sex Ratios. They are now slipping up.
Manipur’s CSR has fallen from 957 in 2001 to 936 in 2011.
Pointing to India’s
overall uneven Child Sex Ratio – from 945 girls per 1000 boys in 1991, it
has fallen to 918 in 2011 – The UN report describes the situation as an
‘emergency.’ Indeed it is. Girls are not being allowed to be
born. Some 500,000 female foetuses are aborted annually in India. An adverse
CSR shows that violence against women begins even before she is born.
Despite the
enactment of legislation to ban determination of the sex of the foetus – sex
determination of the foetus often leads to abortion if the foetus is found to
be female –This female foeticide practice persists. Government authorities
claim they are helpless as rarely does sex determination of the foetus or sex
selective abortion get reported to the police. Social activists have a
different story to tell. They point to connivance of local authorities with the
crime.
Even when a
clinic is ordered to be shut down for violating the law, authorities allow them
to re-open. Besides the legal route to tackling sex selective abortions, India
must tackle misogynist perceptions that justify violence against women. Our
skewed India Child Sex Ratio has its roots in our patriarchal culture, one
which sees women and girls not just as a burden but as a curse. Such mindsets,
which both men and women possess, need to be tackled vigorously through a
systematic and comprehensive campaign.
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