Upon reading an article "Cell proposed to combat female foeticide" in India's reputed daily news paper The Hindu dated May 27,2007. Curiosity forced me to ferret out the sociological reasons connected with it. Hence this article to bring awareness amoung the educated community of people.
Declining sex ratio:
- Pre-birth sex determination leads to female foeticide.
- More females die at infantry and during the reproductive period.
- General neglegence of females is largely responsible for high female mortality at childhood.
Sociological factors:
Poverty: Infact, the explanation for a declining ratio lies in the poverty of the Indian people. In a country where even now nearly 26% of the population lives below the poverty line. High infant mortality, poor medical facilities, extermely unhygienic condition of living and absense of pre-natal and post-natal care.
Economic security: In the absence of old age security schemes, the son is considered to be the insurance against old age. This also reinforces preference in allotment of good diet and medical care in favour of males. Regarding malnutrituion a study conducted by CARE(Co-operative for American Relief Everywhere) for pre-school children in punjab showed that 29% of male children suffered from severe malnutrition, but the proportion was as high as 71% in case of females.
Dowry: Dowry system has become much more intensified these days. Expensive gadgetary like scooters/cars are demanded from the parents to give dowry instead of declining has increased. Marriages are becoming much more expensive even in middle class and lower middle class. Obviously, this has resulted in a preference of male to female children. Big advertisements on sex determination tests (amniocentosis) pose a choice between avoidance of birth of a daughter or impending liability of a dowry payment in the slogan "Better pay Rs. 500 now that Rs. 5 lakhs later"
Recently, I read few excerpts from Gita Aravamudan's interview, the author of "Disappearing Daughters : The Tragedy of Female Foeticide".
Heed to her observations:
- Women were forced to undergo abortion after abortion due to social and filial pressures, the fear that they would be thrown out of home otherwise, made them do it.
- The more educated a woman is, the more likely she is to actively choose a boy if she decides to have a child. Educated housewives are also more likely to abort daughters probably because they are very unhappy with their own situation. The only educated woman likes to keep daughters are the very independent minded, not those who are just financially independent but those strong enough to say 'This is what I want'.
- Educated Men, especially in the business class, also want to have sons to carry on their business.
Suggested measures to tackle the problem:
- Spread of education and improvement in the educational status of the population
- Removal of poverty will help the females to overcome the biological disadvantage associated with the life of woman
- There should be a lecture series on the subject in medical colleges. Doctors should be make aware that aborting female babies is a crime
- Girls must be taught to value themselves and boys taught to value girls and women at the primary school level.
- Media can play a very proactive role, exposing and emphasizing this problem to the mass society. Cinema has a very strong impact on society. it can pose a popular attack
With improvements in all these agents, Sex ratio will improve.
