India celebrated “statistics day” on 29th June 2011. The theme being ‘gender statistics’. Statistics is an important tool to help plan development strategies and to assess the outcome of these strategies. It was through such studies that the appalling condition of female babies came to light. The continued quest for a male child has been snuffing out the lives of female fetuses. This is a dangerous trend. Earlier civilizations came to an end due to various natural causes. The present trend of modern societies killing girl babies would lead to manmade disaster, which if not checked in time, will herald the end of modern civilization. The country is now waking up from its slumber to realize the danger to mankind. The emphasis to studies relating to gender statistics is timely. The following write-up is to highlight the danger of indiscriminate female child feticide.
Mankind is always busy meddling with nature. Ever since there was population explosion, governments met the growing demand for life’s necessities by exploiting natural resources. This has now resulted in over exploitation and is creating an imbalance in nature and also in the socio-economic life of people.
The uneven distribution of wealth has created class conflicts. These conflicts have created a large divide between the rich and the poor. Strangely the elite and the poor do not desire to have girl babies for various economic reasons. The rich resort to scanning to determine the sex. If it is a girl baby they wish to abort it or go in for medical termination of pregnancy as part of family planning. As sex determination is banned in India, the rich travel to Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, as there is no ban in these countries. The poor wait until delivery and then abandon or murder the girl babies. Some poor parents go to Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh, where mobile scanning units thrive. However the situation exists and it is creating ethical and moral problems in the society.
As it is we find that Gay marriages are thriving and also it is being accepted as a way of life. Sodomy, rape and other sexual deviations are becoming common and are causing untold misery and pain. Besides uneven sex ratios, we find a lot of children without any parental care. These children resort to unsocial activities and are also exploited for child sex, resulting in high incidence of AIDS, HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, all of which affect the general health of the population.
As law enforcement becomes active, people are resorting to sex change of girl child into a male child. This is reported happening in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. People are circumventing the law by all dubious means, little realizing that they are changing the law of nature and disobeying Gods command. This creates an unnecessary imbalance in the male female ratio and many are forced to stay single, much against God’s wish that people multiply, spread out and fill the earth and enjoy bountiful nature.
What then is a strict moral life? Morality changes from time to time with life style changes. There is thus a constant and continuous drift into a life of immorality, breaking down all of Gods moral codes and guidelines. This results in a cascade of disasters affecting morality and stable moral life. The foolishness to tamper with Gods wisdom will end in chaos and disaster, which we are seeing happen in our daily life.
Our latest census data of 2011 reveals a sad state of affairs regarding the girl child. The state with the highest child sex ratio is Mizoram at 971 per 1000 and the lowest is Haryana at 830 per 1000. In Karnataka State it is 943 per 1000. There has been a gradual decline over the years. This is happening despite the law banning scanning for sex determination and other laws because of poor implementation.
A recent study published in the famous journal ‘Lancet’ reveals that selective abortion of girls rose to 2.0 million in 1980s to 1.2 to 4.1 million in the 1990s and 3.1 to 6.0 million in the 2000s. Selective abortions of girls are estimated at between 4 and 12 million over three decades from 1980 to 2010. This was about the time, when the economy and level of literacy spread across the states, but this had no impact on the selective aborting of girl babies.
Do we need this to happen? Education, wealth and a sound family background also do not seem to influence this trend. The mindset of people needs to change and change drastically, if the girl child and women are to be safe and welcomed in this male dominated society. India’s violent attitude towards women have become notorious in appalling statistics of infanticide, rape and various forms of discrimination like in nutrition, health, labour wages and dignity. India is reported to be world’s fourth most dangerous country for women.
Government and society need to devise ways and means to protect women and children, especially girls from needless harassment and exploitation by implementing suitable laws strictly. They should also be provided incentives and implement social reforms by way of free education, books, uniforms, cycles, medicines, food and coaching for weaker students. There should also be employment guarantees to reduce stigma around being female.
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