DISTRESSED EVES: RECONSIDERING THE POSITION OF INDIAN FEMALES
13 May 2012 Sunday arrived and was over and the world celebrated ‘International Mothers’ Day’ yet once agin. Begun in 1908 in the United States of America, the second Sunday of May is being celebrated each year as a recognition of motherhood. Indirectly, the day is also a celebration of the essence of femininity. However, in the 21st century, the question has arisen to haunt us: are we really giving the females their due recognition? More importantly, do we give the women, whom we revere as mothers, the very chance to survive? If anything, they increasingly seem to be Indian Eves in dire distress – of survival, growth and development.
With his maiden episode of ‘Satyameva Jayate’ on 6 May 2012, the Indian actor Aamir Khan has touched a raw nerve in Indian societal discussions. The ‘Himalayan Mirror’ has finely covered its aftermath. Aamir Khan has not only explored but also substantiated the grievous state of female foeticide in our country. The experiences of Amisha Yagnik from Ahmedabad, Parveen Khan from Morena, and Mitu Khurana from New Delhi, who were invited on stage during the show, have something in common – they have all been physically or mentally abused for conceiving female child in opposition to their in-laws’ or husband’s wishes. We are one of the faster growing economies of the world, an electronics’ giant, a major military power, the world’s largest democracy, and yet, sixty-four years after the independence, the Indians are yet to change their attitude towards their own females. We are still an overwhelmingly-patriarchal nation. We are still killing one million female children a year, through foeticide and other means, to bring down the sex ratio to 914 in the previous year. Interestingly, females outnumber males in the whole of North American continent, most parts of South America, almost the whole of Europe, Australia, southeastern Asia, and even in more than half the countries of the impoverished Africa. Only in some of the south Asians countries – and, sadly, India is among them – the situation is exactly the opposite. These countries cannot shake off their responsibilities in bringing down the 2011 international sex ratio down to 984 females against a thousand males.
Crimes against Indian women are continuing and even increasing. As ‘National Crime Records Bureau’ estimated in 2011, India has 60 registered rapes a day. Many women are generally reticent to report ravishment, and yet the reported cases are so high. Even in the national capital of New Delhi, one girl is reportedly molested in every 14 hours. However, even more heinous than these crimes is the deplorable task of denying the female child the right to be born. In spite of several preventive measures having had been taken by both the central and state governments, biased parents and unscrupulous gynaecologists are still carrying on secret termination of pregnancies, usually of the female foetuses. Thought such incidents are gradually declining, statistics reported underneath reveal that the murderous crime is yet to be thoroughly controlled.
Not every Indian state, however, is at fault. 2011 government sources reveal that sex ratio is either encouraging or near-satisfactory at Kerala (1084 females per 1000 males), Puducherry (1038), Tamil Nadu (995), Andhra Pradesh (992), and Chhattisgarh (991). On the other hand, among the worst-hit states with a pitiable sex-ratio, are Daman and Diu (618 females per 1000 males), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (775), Chandigarh (818), and New Delhi (866). For other Indian states, the 2011 average sex-ratios were: Haryana (877), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (878), Jammu and Kashmir (883), Sikkim (889), Punjab (893), Uttar Pradesh (908), Bihar (916), Gujarat (918), Arunachal Pradesh (920), Maharastra (925), Rajasthan (926), Madhya Pradesh (930), Nagaland (931), Lakshadweep (946), West Bengal (947), Jharkhand (947), Assam (954), Tripura (961), Uttarakhand (963), Karnataka (968), Goa (968), Himachal Pradesh (974), Mizoram (975), Odisha (978), Meghalaya (986), and Manipur (987). Between 2001 and 2011, the child sex ratios have identifiably dropped in states like Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, and West Bengal. The eastern Indian states having had been culturally most protective of girls, the imbalance in sex ratios in these states has become a matter of even concern for public health activists.
In the first issue of the first volume of “International Journal of Criminal Justice Sciences” (January 2006), Snehalata Tandon and Renu Sharma had given well-researched statistics regarding female foeticide and infanticides in different states of India, including Sikkim and West Bengal. In the beginning of the 21st century, both Sikkim and West Bengal fared high on anti-foeticide drives and the number of female foeticides remained nil in both the states. Three cases of infanticide in Sikkim were reported during the period, with two in West Bengal. In Maharastra, however, the reported number of female foeticides was the highest – between 41 and 45 – followed by Madhya Pradesh (between 14 and 15), Haryana (13-14) and Andhra Pradesh (8-9). The number of infanticides in these four states was respectively 20, 31, 1, and 8. Tandon and Sharma, like numerous other Indian sociologists and statisticians, agree that for foeticide and infanticide, female-children are specifically targeted. Other than counselling of and vigilance on prejudiced parents and increased reporting in media, the sociologists argue that strict enforcements of anti-foeticidal and infanticide laws with harsher penalties than ever could be effective in normalising the Indian sex-ratios. Legal measures like ‘Hindu Marriage Act – 1955’, ‘Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act – 1956’, ‘Dowry Prohibition Act – 1961; amended in 1986), ‘Immoral Traffic Prevention Act – 1986’ have already been passed to change the situation, and with the maintenance of ‘Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act – 1994’ since January 1996, the situation is expected to be hopeful with consciousness on the average Indians part. People need to understand that the female children are boons not banes. Not only they grow up into sensitive human beings, but also they often leave marks in every socio-cultural and scientific field. Parents need to celebrate the fact that they are guardians to females who would obviously make them proud through intelligence, education, beauty, and sensibilities. Thanks to documentary shows like the one Aamir Khan hosted, millions of conscious Indians are being increasingly forced to rethink their patriarchal ideologies. Only then can ‘Mothers’ Day’ be celebrated more successfully than ever.
– Reported by: Pinaki Roy; Balurghat
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