Misbah Haqani
Female foeticide has its roots in the social thinking which is fundamentally based on certain erroneous notions, ego centric traditions, pervert perception of societal norms, and obsession with ideas which are totally individualistic sans the collective good. All involved in female foeticide deliberately forget to realize that when the foetus of a girl child is destroyed, a woman of future is crucified. To put it differently, the present generation invites the suffering on its own & also sows the seeds of suffering for the future generation, as in the ultimate eventuate, the sex ratio gets affected & leads to manifold social problems.
A woman has to be regarded as an equal partner in the life of a man. It has to be borne in the mind that she has also the equal role in the society i.e, leadership, thinking, participation etc but all is little implemented because our chauvinistic society leaves no stone unturned to make her realise that there is something abnormal with her. Desire of a boy has made our society so wild that we can’t think our society with out a boy but we does not bother about the absence of a girl. He has the tag of expending his family, earn money, strong emotionally, physically & will take care of his parents, which practically is a probability.
Most people think girls cannot proceed their family lineage. They get married off & have nothing to do with parents. It is only man who is always with his Parents in joy & sorrow. Ultrasound scan gives a lot of useful information about the foetus growth during the pregnancy Unfortunately, many IVF specialists misuse the Ultrasound scan technology to check the child sex .
Our society has a grave role for female foeticide. Girls are not safe in our society.They are eve teased by boys when found in public places or alone i.e. why parents are afraid of sending them to schools, colleges, or to another city and hence lead to female foeticide. Dowry, an evil tradition followed since 100 yrs is also burdensome for parents to give large sum of money in his marriage , hence they go for Female foeticide. Hundreds of women are killed everyday because of this system.We need to break this tradition to save lives and reduce the extra wedding expenses.
Rape and sexual harassment is also grave cause of female foeticide. According to UN Rape Statistical report shows that “250,000 cases of rape or attempted rape were recorded by police annually “.This is a biggest cause of this crime.
Such a heinous crime starts itself from home when a brother and sister are treated in different ways, discriminating between the two even sometimes without knowing it. It is not a man who is responsible for this heinous crime but we as a whole Society have created erroneous notions, ego centric traditions, pervert perception of societal norms, and obsession with ideas which are totally individualistic sans the collective good. As Newton’s third law, “for every action there is equal and opposite reaction”, the aftereffect of this genocide are skewed sex ratio, Female/women Trafficking, Increase in rape and assault, Population decline with no mothers, no wombs to bear a child.
Government policies coupled with the grass root efforts are required to curb the social evil of female foeticide.
• More effective implementation of PC and PNDT Act.
• Active monitoring of birth ratios.
• Detailed medical audits of all Ultrasound examination carried out by the registratered clinics .
• Sustained social campaign, financial incentives to parents giving birth to a female child, free educational scholarship, reservation for females in educational institutions and jobs and
• Active involment of communities, NGO’S and other voluntary organisations with support from the government are needed. Concluding with the message: “LET THE FEMALE FOETUS LIVE NOT THE FEMALE FOETICIDE ”
(The author is a student at Law Department at Kashmir University. Views are his own)
