A Solution to Female Infanticide
Last week in police uncovered over 50 discarded female fetuses at the bottom of a well in Punjab. It has sparked an aggressive statewide crackdown on at illegal clinics across the country and exposed how corrupt government officials have been helping protect illegal clinics. According to the article in the BBC, there are 776 girls born for every 1000 boys in the Punjab--it's a birthrate that is entirely attributable to female infanticide.Between female infanticide and illegal clinical trials (as in letrozol in 2003 and possibly cyclopamine) fertility clinics across India have become houses of death that are severely weakening the future of this country. While I am going to continue to search out problems in underground clinics in Chennai, I have an idea that could help Punjab out of its woes.
The response to female infanticide in the state government has been to "crack down" on clinics that provide the services and stop them from operating. They assume that if they cut off access to the technology then the practice will be forced to stop. It's a good plan except it does not take into account the myriad of other ways that women occupy a low social rung.
The problem basically stems from a dowry system that cripples families' incomes. The poor often have no other choice than to get rid of a child who they know will eventually cost them a lot of money. And if they can't have abortions, the might sell the child into slavery or kill her after birth. The answer can be found not in policing the problem, but by publicizing the extent of it.
Now that the gender disparity has shown up with so many more boys than girls, it seems logical that female children should be seen as valuable commodities. Since every girl will be able to find a partner, 1 out of every 5 men will go marriage-less (according to the statistics). In fact, because the numbers are so drastic, it is possible that 10 years down the line women will be in a position to demand dowry from men, not the other way around. It comes down to economics. The supply of women is short, so their demand has to rise.
I think there should be a massive public awareness campaign about the extent of the problem that doesn't only attack people for aborting female fetuses, but makes them aware that the problem is so advanced that in the future female children will be more valuable than boys. If enough people know that the birth ratio should right itself and women may even begin to occupy higher positions in the social milieu.
posted by Scott Carney @ 9:23 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
I hope so. But Punjab where the sex ration is the worst also happens to be the richest state in India.
Maybe economics is not the real reason there?!
This is also a problem in the West anywhere there is a punjabi population. Vancouver has the biggest Punjabi culture in the west and it happens here all the time. The punjabi culture is very sexist, heck the only honor killings in Canada in this decade have been punjabi girls
NOOOOOOOOOOO. Economics tells us, when you have a shortage you buy from the chepest source. Why pay women dowry, when u can buy them for a fraction of price.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4862434.stm
yeah, you would *think* so...for a millisecond. But what has happened instead is that women are being trafficked/outright abducted from afar to satisy the need for wives. As long as women remain powerless, second-class citizens in a heavily patriarchal society, this (overly simplistic) economic solution will not apply. And to equate women with increased *economic* value will serve to turn them further into "commodity" status, objectifying them even more, and reducing their autonomy. Can you imagine?: "I paid Rs 1000 for you--clean it up faster!" Even in the west, money inequalities between men and women exacerbate social inequalities. Goes to show you that more complexity needs to brought in to free-market economics...
Also: women are "valueless" not exactly in-and-of themselves, but because they join the husband's family in marriage, increasing *their* labor-supply. In contrast, men stay in the family, constituting the "pension plan" of most Indian seniors--a son's duty is to take care of his parents. So along with the burden of dowry, the future *cost* of a baby girl is seen as double: outgoing dowry and loss of the old age "pension."
Supply/demand and economics isn't the answer - women will not become "economically" more valued when they are not not deemed as valuable by society. In fact, as other commenters have mentioned, they will probably be bought and sold like cattle. I heard of one story where a man bought a wife and shared him with his 2 brothers. When she refused to sleep with his brother, she was murdered.
Manish Jha has depicted the dark face of 'marriagelessness' in 'a nation without women' in Matrubhoomi.
Dowry is definitely one of the major reasons behind this practice. I in my limited capacity had initiated a campaign a few months ago. But these things do not help much, a mass awareness is needed and that demands a significant culturo-mentality shift. Tough job, but can be done.
Punjab isn't the only state in India that may have the greatest imbalance between males and females. What about places in South India? Punjabis are Indians too and if have anything against Punjabis (Ex-Punjabi), you're going against Indians, as well.
Anyways, this is all due to our male-dominated society in India as a total. Maybe if the status of women in society was increased, we could overcome female infantacide. Dowry also plays a role in India. If people actually followed the rules in India, we would actually advance further.
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