AN APPEAL By
Delhi Gynaecologist Forum and IMA to its
Colleagues and General Public
Missing girls: Disgrace for Medical Fraternity
And Civil Society |
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Falling sex ratio is cause of concern of every Indian and every Indian doctors specially Gynecologists and Radiologists. The news that people in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Chandigarh are importing ‘at-home’ sex determination kits can only spell further doom for the girl child. What earlier needed shady and secretive visits to the radiologists can now be accomplished in the privacy of one’s own home. This newer and more expensive technology, which involves access to internet, will surely be first utilized by the educated and well off people of society before the news spreads like wild fire in general public.It is predicted soon ultrasound determination of sex of child will be a history just like amniocentesis. Then no more doctors and medical associations have to hang their heads in shame whenever there is talk of sex determination due to few black sheep.
Times have gone when doctor used to say that sex determination is done by quacks. It is a fact that non-registration of ultrasound machine and clinics at dawn of 2008 is a rarity as it is a Big Offence under PC-PNDT Act causing closure of ultrasound clinic and loss of professional revenue. No quacks are doing sex determination today. If sex determination is at all done, it is done by qualified doctors or under the patronage of qualified doctors. It is a fact!
It is more frightening to know that these sex determination technologies are combining with the steady spread of daughter dis-preference to areas hitherto unaffected so far. Surprisingly, child sex ratios in several districts have declined in even progressive states like Kerala. Orissa, Assam and several other states also showed decline in sex ratios at birth and 0-6 child sex ratios in the 2001 census which was not noted in earlier census. However, worst offending states are still Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Chandigarh. These trends of misuse of technology should be seriously taken, as it amounts to the rising incidence of female feticide every where in India. The more government is creating public awareness; more and more people are indulging in sex determination racket.Mapping of child sex ratios by experts show that the traditional north/south divide is no longer valid. Missing girls now dot almost the entire map of India, including parts of the Northeast. The few protected areas that remain untouched are tribal belts in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, showing us that it is surely not the ‘Tribals’ who need civilizing. It is educated and affluent who require attitudinal change about the girl child.
Trend in Punjab and Haryana today provides us with clues to the emerging societal crisis caused by the spreading daughter/or bride deficit. Facing a severe female shortage and consequently the desperate bachelors of these states are ‘hunting’ for brides. It began with poor, illiterate women from poor states like Assam, West Bengal and Bihar and has now girls of rich states such as Maharashtra and even Kerala are lured, where women are literate, economically independent, but expectation of better living standard brings them to Punjab and Haryana.
Earlier, these women from the poor states were young, from families with several girls and whose parents could not afford ‘honorable’ dowry in marriages. They ended up being married far away from home to men who were much older. Or they became second wives to men whose wives had not been able to provide the desired male heir. Their miseries and tribulations are immense due to the social and religious cultural gulf between them and their husbands, sharing not even common language. They had no choice, no control. The women from Kerala and Maharashtra appear to be exercising some agency by choosing to marry well off families in these states. Girls from Kerala are already ‘overage’ and devalued in their own society for not affording ‘dowry’; while women from Maharashtra come in these prosperous states, hoping to achieve a higher standard of living.Men are getting categorized according to those who are attractive grooms for local women and those who are not. The poor, landless, unemployed and physically disabled men are at the bottom of the heap. They face no-marriage or have to wait for long to get married, buy wives or at least foot all the expenditure on marriage if lucky enough to find a woman. They are the ones having to marry women from outside their own culture and state. The fate of the children of such ‘hybrid’ marriages remains as yet unknown.
In Haryana and Punjab it is increasingly obvious that while all daughters of family must be married for reasons of family honour, all sons need not be married. Sons are being discouraged from marriage for reasons of shortage of brides and equally to prevent land fragmentation. These frustrated young men have started creating havoc in the society and increasing sexual crimes against women are noted now.
It is a great lesson for the rest of India. If society wishes to choose to learn the lesson from, Punjab and Haryana, it should do not ‘in time’. If it does not pay attention – then it has to pay a hefty price for eliminating girl child in their community.
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| Dr. Sharda Jain |
Dr. Sunita Fotedar |
Dr. Uma Goel |
Dr. N.P. Kaur |
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