In the training at LBSNAA today, Dr. Neelam Singh from Vatsalya talked of the sex selective abortion in India and how grave the problem it poses for the social fabric of the country. Being a self proclaimed feminist, I felt a pinching sensation for some points yet most of the talk left me unperturbed.
Then, it was this image that caught my attention while it was lingering on the fold able screen.
I stared at it a little longer than usual. Gradually, it came in as a revelation - this realisation that almost all the states of the country have showed the trend of sex-selective abortion!
Look at the colours of the map that shows the child sex ratio of 2001 (left) and 2011 (right) census. Wherever it has changed, it is for the worse. And it has changed a lot. Studies conducted by Vatsalya and other such commendable organisations repeatedly show the increasing percolation of this trend. This trend of "daughter aversion". The trend that shows how many people are ready to kill a child in the womb just because it's a girl.
It is flagrantly clear that the illegal practise of sex determination and consequent selective abortion is becoming more available. This also means that there is increasing demand for such services.
It means, as a society we are increasingly becoming more ready to kill an unborn just because we don't "prefer" a daughter.
It is an instance when the society has adopted a course for its own detriment. The PCPNDT Act is a mere attempt to arrest it through legal force. But what if the law itself gets dissolved in the engulfing mess of social acceptability and hypocrisy.
Yes, hypocrisy - that is why "creating social awareness" doesn't work. Daughter- aversion, coupled with the inherent hypocrisy in the Indian society makes people comfortable through self-denial. The rich blames the poor for the "missing girls". However, studies have shown that the households of top executives and businessmen show an abnormally low child sex ratio vis-a-vis their deprived counterparts.
Legal measures will only have a marginal utility in curbing this social trend of self-destruction.It's for us to understand and assess the consequences of our acts. It's time for us to decide, as Indians, that we will stop killing our unborn daughters!
