Tag: female infanticide

Haryana: 11 Point Drop In Sex Ratio at Birth, Lowest Since 2016

In the district-wise breakup, 13 out of the state’s 22 districts registered a fall in SRB over the past six months, while eight saw an improvement.

New Delhi: Haryana has recorded an 11-point fall in sex ratio at birth (SRB) between January and May this year as compared to 2022, the Tribune reported.

This is the lowest half-yearly SRB recorded after 2016 in Haryana, the Hindustan Times reported.

According to data from the civil registration system, Haryana’s SRB, 917 at the end of 2022, dropped to 906 in June this year.

In the district-wise breakup, 13 out of the state’s 22 districts registered a fall in SRB over the past six months, while eight saw an improvement.

Charkhi Dadri registered the highest drop of 65 points with an SRB of 868 this year as opposed to 933 in December 2022. It was followed by a 60 point drop in Rohtak, Gurugram (45) and Kaithal (32), the Tribune reported.

Other badly performing districts are Karnal (874), Mewat (910), Fatehabad (926), Panchkula (914), Narnaul (888), Bhiwani (897), Sonepat (885), Palwal (909) and Ambala (922).

On the other hand, Rewari (923) recorded a 40-point improvement in SRB in the past six months followed by Kurukshetra (928) with 35, Jhajjar (919) with 26, Jind (961) with 19, Faridabad (904) with 12, Yamunanagar (933) with 10, Panipat (932) with eight and Hisar (908) with four points, the Tribune report said.

Dr Anil Birla, a civil surgeon from Rohtak told the Tribune that delays in registration of births was one of the main reasons behind the decline.

Haryana’s SRB had shown a steady improvement after the launch of ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ in 2015 but had begun declining again by 2020, ThePrint reported.

“When we started the raids seven years ago, sex detection was done through fixed [sonography] machines. Now it has gone underground,” Haryana’s Beti Bachao Beti Padhao convenor Girdhari Lal Singhal told ThePrint. Tests are carried out in fields, at isolated spots in villages, or at a relative’s homes, but never in clinics, he added.

The Haryana administration is increasingly relying on “decoys” or pregnant women who help authorities catch those conducting sex determination tests in informal settings, the report said.

However, many pregnant women are reluctant to join even though the state government had started incentivising decoys in 2015. They are paid Rs 25,000 per operation, while informers receive Rs 1 lakh for correct information on doctors, nurses, and middlemen breaking the law.

Foeticide: More ‘Missing’ Girls Among Hindus Than Muslims in Last Two Decades, Official Data Shows

Researchers have used government data to find that nine million girls went ‘missing’ in 20 years in India.

New Delhi: Hindus have the highest number of missing girls attributable to female foeticide in India, a new research report prepared by the Pew Research Centre has revealed.

The researchers got their data from the last three rounds of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), including the fifth and latest one (2019-2020). The NFHS is conducted by the Union government.

The Pew Research Centre is a Washington-based nonprofit that undertakes research on, among other topics, demographics. The team that put together the current report comprised five people: primary researcher Yungping Tong; associate director and demographer Conrad Hackett; researchers Stephanie Kramer and Anne Fengyan Shi; and director of religion research Alan Cooperman.

According to their analysis, at least 9 million girls are ‘missing’ in India as a result of female infanticide from 2000 to 2019. To compare, this is slightly lower than the entire population of Uttarakhand.

India banned prenatal sex-determination testing in the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act 1994. The clandestine use of ultrasound facilities for this purpose continues, however, as do sex-selective abortions.

“As India’s largest religious group, Hindus make up 79.8% of India’s total population and account for a disproportionate share, 86.7%, of the missing female births,” the report reads.

These girls are said to be ‘missing’ because they should have been born and become part of the population – but didn’t because the foetuses were aborted. According to the centre’s report, Hindus alone ‘lost’ some 7.8 million girls.

The Sikhs follow the Hindus: they comprise only 1.7% of the country’s population but contributed 4.9% of ‘missing’ female births (around 4.4 lakh girls).

Muslims account for 14% of the population and were responsible for 6.6% (5.9 lakh) ‘missing’ female births. Finally, Christians make up 2.3% of the population and accounted for 0.6% (50,000) ‘missing’ births.

Also Read: Love, Faith and Consent in a Hindu Rashtra

A simple equation

When girls go ‘missing’ in this manner, the male-female ratio in the general population becomes skewed in favour of the males.

The NFHS data doesn’t provide a direct estimate of the number of girls missing as a result of sex-selective abortions. The researchers determined these numbers by comparing the numbers of observed and expected female births.

In addition, they figured the expected number of female births by applying India’s sex ratio in the given period – 105.3 boys per 100 girls. Put differently, if X boys are born, then X multiplied by 0.95 girls will have been born in the same period.

Information on the actual number of births over the three decades came from the Sample Registration System (SRS), which is also undertaken by the Union government.

The difference between the number of female births that should have happened and the actual number of births is equal to the number of ‘missing’ births.

Ultrasound of a growing foetus in the mother’s womb at 23 weeks old. Photo: Flickr/hose902 (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

‘Striking’

The concept of ‘missing’ girls flows from a skewed sex ratio at birth, which has slightly stabilised over the last few years in India. (In this article, ‘sex ratio’ refers to ‘sex ratio at birth’ per se.) However, the sex ratio has been the topic of public discussions more often than the reality of ‘missing’ girls.

As it happens, a 2010 discussion paper prepared by researchers at the Institute for Labour Economics (IZA), a German nonprofit research institute, offers a useful comparison. The paper’s authors examined such ‘missing’ girls in India from 1995 to 2005 – which is roughly the decade before the ones to which the Pew group paid attention.

The paper stated that “as many as 0.48 million girls per annum were selectively aborted during 1995-2005”. Further:

“For a given sex history of births, substantially more sex selection was conducted post-ultrasound by families with wealth (top 20%) and relatively educated women (attaining at least secondary education) and, conditional on wealth and education, by Hindus as compared with Muslims.”

The paper called the practice of sex-selective abortions among educated women “striking” and the concentration of girls in more prosperous households a “challenge” to “the popular notion that the exercise of son preference is a marker of economic backwardness and ignorance”.

Killing female foetuses also resulted in what the Pew Research Centre report’s authors call a “marriage squeeze”, especially among Sikhs: a shortage of marriageable women. The ‘squeeze’ is also fuelled by the fact that few Indian men marry outside their religion.

It can eventually be responsible, in part, for increases in sex-related violence and crimes and trafficking of women.

Also Read: Why the 2019 ‘Population Regulation Bill’ Has Dangerous Consequences for India

The usual suspects

The report’s authors write that there is a correlation between three parameters and an individual’s decision to conduct a sex-selective abortion (but not necessarily causation). These are caste, wealth and education.

Caste

As an example, according to the Pew Research Centre report, among ‘general category’ Sikh women, the sex ratio (121 boys per 100 girls) is more imbalanced than it is among ‘Scheduled Caste’ Sikhs (102). The authors attribute this to land ownership and therefore wealth.

Specifically, taking a cue from NFHS data, the authors write that upper-caste Sikh households are more unlikely to be underprivileged than ‘Scheduled Caste’ Sikh households to own a piece of land (59% vs. 8%). Therefore:

“… land-owning caste groups may be more motivated than others to avoid having daughters, especially when their regional norms exclude daughters from inheriting family property.”

Wealth

Next, the report’s authors didn’t find a significant sex-ratio gap between general- and reserved-category Hindus and Muslims. But when they combined the use of ultrasound facilities with caste patterns, the picture changed.

The authors found that the sex-ratio tended towards more males than females among the so-called ‘upper-caste’ women compared to women of ‘Scheduled Caste’ groups.

“For instance,” they write, “the birth ratio among general category women was 9 points wider than among women of ‘Scheduled Castes’ in the 2005-2006 NFHS, when the rate of ultrasound use among upper-caste women was twice as high.”

Access to ultrasound facilities and a skewed sex ratio were in combination taken to be suggestive of sex-selective abortions.

Education

The Pew Research Centre authors inferred from the NFHS data that women who were wealthier and more educated were less likely to favour sons over daughters. Families that lived in cities were also less likely than their rural counterparts, according to the data, to favour having sons, likely because they were more educated.

However, the authors also warned that education, wealth and urbanicity could together improve a woman’s or a family’s access to an amenable ultrasound facility or other forms of prenatal sex-screening.

They use the example of South Korea, where studies have found that the most educated groups were the first to report a widening gap in the sex ratio – in the 1980s – before the gap spread to other demographic groups. Similarly, later, the country’s most educated groups were the first to report a narrowing of the gap towards the natural 1:1 ratio.

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While the study periods of the IZA discussion paper and the Pew Research Centre report are a decade apart, and both NFHS and SRS data indicate a declining trend in the preference for sons, both analyses indicate that sex-selection abortions are continuing in the country. They might be becoming less common as well, but we don’t yet know if that is in proportion to the rate of growth of India’s economy and literacy.

All we know for now is that in the 20 years until 2019, India lost almost ten million girls.

Illogical Leaps Propel ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’, Making It Lose Sight of Basic Things

The film’s set up is credible. But it is also the kind of film where a husband mock-beating a wife – Jayeshbhai claps and shouts behind a closed door to convince his parents – becomes a romantic scene.

Jayeshbhai (Ranveer Singh)’s family craves a son. The fierce patriarch Prithwish (Boman Irani), the sarpanch of a hamlet in Gujarat, has forced his daughter-in-law, Mudra (Shalini Pandey), to abort five baby girls. His village has only one law: vicious masculinity.

When a young girl requests Prithwish to ban alcohol, because the boys get drunk and harass her, he declares to ban soaps, blaming women’s fragrance. When Jayeshbhai’s brother-in-law beats his sister, Prithwish expects his son to thrash Mudra – that man’s sister – to take revenge.

Mind you, at this point, less than 15 minutes have passed. Let me also remind you that Jayeshbhai Jordaar, directed by Divyang Thakkar, is a Yash Raj Films production. Around half-an-hour later, a radiant mustard field pops up. But unlike the setting of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’s iconic song, it doesn’t prompt the innocence of first love but… murder. Prithwish’s men are chasing Mudra and her daughter, Sidhi (Jia Vaidya).

This is the kind of film where a husband mock-beating a wife – Jayeshbhai claps and shouts behind the closed door to convince his parents – becomes a romantic scene.

The set-up is credible, intriguing, disturbing. But a movie is not a sprint; it’s a long-distance run. Jayeshbhai Jordaar insists otherwise and persists with its blinding velocity. So, we get an equally charged, inciting incident: Mudra pointing a scissor at Jayeshbhai’s neck, wanting to flee the house. Jayeshbhai, the only feminist man in the village, is so scared of his father that he has to stage a scene of protest.

Predictable mayhem follows: Jayeshbhai hatching a plan with Mudra and Sidhi, Jayeshbhai double-crossing Prithwish, Prithwish turning red with murderous rage. The movie retains its momentum but loses its logic. A simple question: why not escape in the night? Especially in an early scene, where Jayeshbhai encourages Mudra to drive in the night – a taboo in the village – showing that they’re used to such stealth.

A still from ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’.

Or take another scene: the one in the mustard field. Prithwish’s men have finally found the mother and the daughter, standing a few feet away from them. But then, Jayeshbhai, still pretending to support his father, flings a rock at them. It lands close, causing a black cat to cross their path. A sign of “panauti”, it distracts Prithwish, allowing Mudra and Sidhi to flee. The scene’s intent is straightforward (and impressive): what makes people like Prithwish rule also makes them sink – an adherence to outlandish belief. But it’s built upon an incredible mix of coincidence and contrivance, making you lose confidence in the storytelling.

Because this is a pattern. The illogical leaps propel many scenes – sometimes in succession – contradicting the characters as well. At one moment, Prithwish seems like an uncompromising old hand – shockingly stubborn in realising his vile ends – while the next he behaves like a gullible teenager, ready to believe any cock-and-bull story.

This unrelenting and bleak drama also darts in one lane. Besides some sporadic humour, it doesn’t have space or patience for anything else. It first elicits tedium, then a slow, consistent frustration.

It’s undecided about its broad tone, too. If the film’s primary setting, the village in Gujarat, inches close to the edges of dystopia (even though the very definition of that word has become contested in the India of today), then its polar opposite reeks of utopia.

A still from ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’.

While escaping from his father, for instance, Jayeshbhai drives into a local fair. The loudspeaker underscores the virtues of a baby girl, followed by “beti bachao, beti padhao”. The owner of a homestay there betrays Jayeshbhai by informing Prithwish. But his wife, a fierce Bengali woman (who insults her man at every opportunity), saves them by pointing a knife at her husband. This is a typical Hindi film disease: If your film is about a particular theme, then everything in that world must revolve around it – and, like a hat-doff to Newtonian mechanics, every character must have an equal and opposite (read: extreme!) counterpart.

Take a more crucial subplot: a village, Ladopur, in Haryana, devoid of women. Its men have become so helpless that they invite women from all over the country, promising them a life of dignity and equality. They’ve also taken a pledge of non-violence.

Surely, Ladopur doesn’t (wholly) exist, giving this movie a quasi-alternate reality feel. This isn’t a problem by itself – the problem is, the film doesn’t seem to be aware of such lunges. This, too, feels like a convenient plot point. Trying to find a safe space for Mudra and Sidhi, Jayeshbhai finds it via an online search. One message later, its sarpanch (Puneet Issar) invites them over. The Ladopur portion, trying hard to be absurd and funny and subversive, finds itself in cinematic no man’s land. It takes remarkable skill to flit from farce to realism, and Jayeshbhai Jordaar isn’t even close.  

A still from ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’.

It’s also overcrowded. New subplots, characters, plot twists, narrative misdirection greet us often. They don’t elevate the film, but make it lose sight of basic things.

For a film championing the dignity of women, its female lead, Mudra, is passive. She doesn’t do much except whimper, obey and follow. I last remember seeing such a pitiable heroine in a Hindi film in Kabir Singh (whose Telugu original, Arjun Reddy, had Pandey making her debut). Singh whips up some humour, even a dash of pathos – his initial shame and helplessness brought by his family is striking – but he’s limited by the limited material. It’s become a pattern with him: a gifted actor trying his best to shine in a spate of mediocre films.

Bollywood must be the opposite of King Midas. It touches gold and turns it plastic.

NCRB Plus NFHS-4 Data Paints a Dire Picture for Women in Odisha

Odisha contributed to 5.6% of all crime against women in 2017 – the second-worst state in the country on this front.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently released data for the year 2017, which underscores the fact that the rate of crimes against women in Odisha continues to be high. The state contributes to about 3% of India’s population but, with 94.5 cases of crime against women per lakh people, Odisha also contributed to 5.6% of all crime against women in 2017. It ranks as the second-worst state in the country on this front.

When you read the NCRB data together with the women’s welfare parameters in the fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS), conducted in 2015-2016, it gets worse.

Between 2012 and 2018, the incidence of rape cases in Odisha rose from 7.2 per lakh women to 9.7 per lakh women.

In both 2016 and 2017, Odisha came first in the crime category of ‘attempt to disrobe’ and fourth in the number of dowry deaths. In the six years from 2012, 2,921 women have been killed (2.6 and 2.3 per lakh in 2012 and 2018 respectively) for dowry-related issues in the state.

In the NFHS-4 report, 35.2% of women in the state reported having faced spousal violence. Observers have noted upward trends in both the kidnapping and molestation of women since 2000. The figure of 20.5 cases of molestation per lakh women in 2012 nearly doubled to 39.1 cases per lakh women in 2016.

Violence against women is a complex issue, rooted in gender-based discrimination, gender stereotypes, social norms and access to health care. This is why we need the help of health and social workers to work against the normalisation of such violence, from individual women to the community at large.

In the UN’s ‘framework to underpin action to prevent violence against women’ the organisation published in 2017, some steps include promotion of gender equality at an early stage, empowering women, ensuring economic independence, working with boys and men, raising awareness through media, and legislative and procedural reform. But the NFHS-4 report shows how implementing these changes can be a steep task in Odisha.

The female literacy rate in the state is 67.4%. By the time girls turn 15, their school attendance drops to 63%. In fact, only 13% of women in the 15-49 years age group completed 12 or more years of schooling and 28% of women in the same category never attended school. The state government needs to do more to improve these numbers if education is to be a defence against violence against women.

Similarly, 25% of women in Odisha are not exposed to any form of media and only 19% read a newspaper at least once a week, knocking against the government’s traditional modes of creating awareness and mobilising communities.

One workaround is to empower women to become part of more decisions. A little over a fifth of Odisha’s women get married before the legal age (18 years), and a larger fraction have no say in the choice of their partner. A similar fifth of all women don’t participate in decisions about their health, while just 39% had access to a personal mobile phone.

(Fewer than half (47.4%) had access to hygienic safety products during menstruation while just about half (51%) in the 15-49 age group were anaemic.)

These figures are particularly important for their connection with the state’s ubiquitous patriarchal beliefs. About a third of the men think contraception is women’s responsibility, nearly as many think women who use contraceptives are promiscuous, and only 20% of women are allowed to go by themselves to a market, a health facility or generally outside their community’s residence.

So deep is the conditioning that 30% of all married women reported having been slapped by their husbands; 41% of men and 59% of women think this is okay. Moreover, 82% of adults of both sexes want at least one male child.

Odisha created history in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by becoming the first state in India to elect women as a third of its political representatives. The state government also recently embarked on an ambitious ‘5T mission’, to use technology, transparency, team work, time and transformation for better governance.

In light of the NCRB and NFHS-4 data, it is imperative that these Ts have independent verticals to address women’s issues.

Sambit Dash teaches in Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal. He comments on public policy, healthcare, science and issues of social interest. He tweets at @sambit_dash.

In Some Uttarakhand Villages, Not a Single Girl Was Born in Three Months

The imbalance has raised the possibility of sex-selective abortions or the killing of girl children that may be occurring in these villages.

New Delhi: In 132 villages in Uttarkashi, a district in the state of Uttarakhand, no girl children were born in the last three months, according to a report in the Times of India. The only children born here were boys, 216 of them.

The imbalance has raised the possibility of sex-selective abortions or the killing of girl children that may be occurring in these villages. The situation is “suspicious and has highlighted female foeticide”, said Uttarkashi’s district magistrate Ashish Chauhan.

“We will monitor the data and activities of all these villages for next six months and will take strict action against ASHA workers if the situation does not improve. Moreover, we will also take legal action against the family who will be found guilty,” said Chauhan.

These 132 villages have been marked for investigation and intervention by the local government. ASHA workers have been asked to pay more attention here.

Over the last three months, there were 51 deliveries in Dunda block, 49 in Bhatwari block, 47 in Naugaun, 29 in Mori, 23 in Chinyalisaur and 17 in Purola. But no girl child was born anywhere.

Also read: Urban India Has a Serious Sex Ratio Problem

Uttarkashi ranks ninth in the state in terms of sex ratio

While Uttarakhand’s sex ratio is at 963 females per 1,000 males, Uttarkashi district is at 958 females. This makes the district ninth in the state, in terms of sex ratio. According to the last census in 2011, there are 1,61,489 women and 1,68,597 men in Uttarkashi.

Over 100 years ago, between 1901 and 1931, the district’s sex ratio was favourable to women. In 1901, it was 1,015 females per 1,000 males. It started becoming unfavourable from 1931, and over the last century, it has dropped to 958 in 2011.

The sex ratio is more favourable in rural areas than in urban areas, according to the 2011 census.

Also read: Uttarakhand Child Sex-Ratio a Cause For Worry, Says Human Rights Group

While the government routinely talks of and celebrates its ‘Beti Bachao’ programme, the imbalanced sex ratio has been a persistent problem in India.

Recent data from the SRS 2017 shows that the sex ratio has fallen further, to 896 in 2015-2017. It was slightly better at 898 in 2014-2016.

Uttarakhand has the lowest sex ratio at birth for urban areas, at 816. Haryana still has the lowest overall sex ratio at birth at 833. Chhattisgarh is currently the best state on this, at 961.

How Discrimination Against Girl Children Can Be Addressed

The cost of a daughter’s marriage and the prospect of dowry, which includes large amounts of gold, are the largest factors parents consider before deciding to have sex-selective abortion.

The approximate cost of 10 g of gold in Delhi is Rs 33,260. Sadly, this number also determines how many girl children are born in India and how they are cared for.

The cost of a daughter’s marriage and the prospect of dowry, which includes large amounts of gold, are the largest factors parents consider before deciding to have sex-selective abortion. This, coupled with cultural norms that restrict a daughter’s access to property, education and agency, proves to be a noxious cocktail for girls in our country.

The 2011 census of India revealed there were only 919 girls per 1000 boys in the 0-6 age group across the country. According to WHO, the normal child sex ratio falls in the range of 943-980 girls per 1000 boys. A lower ratio is reflective of gender discrimination against the girl child and female infanticide and foeticide cases. Even conservative estimates says millions of girls are missing from our society.

This is not just a rural problem. Research suggests that in educated and rich families, the chances of survival for a second-born girl after a first daughter are less. These families live in urban areas, have access to ultrasound scans and can afford the price of abortion. According the 2011 census, in Delhi, the child sex ratio stands at a dismal 871. South Delhi district is the worst offender.

Also Read: India’s Gender Inequality in Ten Charts

In poorer communities without access to ultrasound clinics, daughters are instead abandoned or killed after being born or through neglect. According to a June 2018 Lancet study on under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) of women in India, estimated 239,000 excess deaths (169,000–293,000) per year in that age category. That would mean every minute, approximately 27 baby girls between the ages of 0 and 5 die due to neglect, malnourishment and lack of access to medical facilities.

More than 90% of districts had excess female mortality, but the four largest states in northern India (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh) accounted for two-thirds of India’s total number.

Discrimination after birth

The researchers found that the gender-based discrimination towards girls doesn’t simply prevent them from being born, it may also precipitate the death of those who are born.

Savita, a young mother, explained that after her second daughter was born, her husband and in-laws began abusing her. “I was unable to give them a son.” Then, a third daughter was born and the violence against Savita and the children became more brutal. “When my daughter fell ill and finally died, the violence stopped,” she said.

Yet, despite these terrible statistics and stories, very little is being done to implement the Pre-Conception Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PCPNDT Act). The Act makes gender determination illegal and puts the onus on the medical fraternity to close monitor all ultrasounds. Although prenatal sex-detection and sex-selective abortion are illegal, many clinics continue to provide these services in a clandestine manner across the country.

Also Read: To Curb Sex-Selective Abortion, We Need More, Not Less, Accountability From Medical Professionals

According to the Quarterly Progress Reports up to December 2017 submitted by states and UTs, the implementation of the Act resulted in the filing of 3,986 court cases. Around 2,007 ultrasound machines were sealed and seized by the authorities for violation of the Act. However, the report also noted that from 1994 till December 2017, only 449 people were convicted. After the convictions, the medical licenses of only 136 doctors were suspended or cancelled.

The 10th Common Review Mission in its 2016 Report on the National Health Mission noted that, “The level of implementation of PCPNDT Act is abysmal. Lack of witnesses and insufficient evidence are cited as major reasons that result in cases falling through, thereby resulting in low conviction rates. The Act is inadequately used while drafting court complaints and the full force of the law is often not brought to bear in prosecution.”

Sex-selective abortion has been banned, but occurs clandestinely. Representative image. Credit: Reuters/Files

Quick turnaround is possible

However, if the law is implemented strictly, a quick turnaround is possible. In 2012, Rajasthan became the first and only state to set up their own bureau of investigation to take up cases of sex selective abortions and sex determination under the PCPNDT Act. The state also set up many special courts for speedy trials.

With the help of the police, the bureau was able to ensure strong prosecution of the offenders, including doctors, nurses, ANMs, touts, brokers involved in criminal act of sex determination and sex selective abortions.

Also Read: Over Two Lakh Young Girls Die Every Year in India Because of Their Gender

Through their relentless efforts, they have been able to secure more than 135 convictions in the last five years. Incentives like the Mukhbir Yojana (informer scheme), with an enhanced reward of Rs 2.5 lakh helped build up a strong network of informers across state.

It is estimated that because of these efforts, the child sex ratio is gradually rising in the state and stands close to 950 in many districts, according to the Pregnancy, Child Tracking and Health Services Management System (PCTS).

Other state governments should follow suit

Yet, despite these successes, other state government have failed to follow these simple steps: institute a system of informers, conduct decoy operations and ensure their protection. Have dedicated helplines, websites and cash rewards for reporting illegal sex determination and female foeticide.

But the law alone will not change the culture. Sex selective abortions are a scandal of epidemic proportions and we cannot sit idly while girls vanish from our cities, our neighbourhoods and our families.

We need to adopt a model of LIFE for all girls – Love, Inheritance, Freedom and Equality. The girls in our families and those yet unborn, need advocates who will love them, ensure that they have equal rights to family property as their brothers, their freedoms are protected and promoted and that they are treated with equal dignity and respect.

Tehmina Arora is a lawyer practicing in the area of constitutional law and human rights.

Our Female Athletes Are All India’s Women, Not Just Daughters or Sisters

It’s disingenuous to frame an argument on victory’s shoulders. If a female athlete needs to accomplish extraordinary tasks to be acknowledged as ‘India’s daughter’, then what status does she enjoy before that?

It’s disingenuous to frame an argument on the shoulders of victory. If a female athlete needs to accomplish extraordinary tasks to be acknowledged as ‘India’s daughter’, then what status does she enjoy before that?

P.V. Sindhu in action against Spain's Carolina Marin in the women's badminton singles final at the 2016 Summer Olympics at Rio de Janeiro on August 19, 2016. Credit: PTI

P.V. Sindhu in action against Spain’s Carolina Marin in the women’s badminton singles final at the 2016 Summer Olympics at Rio de Janeiro on August 19, 2016. Credit: PTI

She could have chosen to ignore it. She could have waited to tweet a photo with a medal winner. She could have clicked selfies with only those who were winning their contests in Rio. But she chose to show empathy. The talented Vinesh Phogat had shared her pain on Twitter after an injury ended her Olympics campaign in Rio de Janeiro. The Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj responded with grace, a gift that many politicians seem to not possess these days.

Many within Swaraj’s party and its supporters never seem to reach their nadir, such is the nature of their vitriolic abuse that is dished out on a daily basis. But Swaraj rose above it, especially when the wait for a medal in Rio was lengthening. Vinesh Phogat did not need to win something to be recognised as ‘India’s daughter’.

Another tweet, however, put that assumption into doubt. Virender Sehwag has acquired a reputation for humorous irreverence on Twitter but, like his playing days, he had one wild swing too many. His message on Twitter following Sakshi Malik’s bronze medal ruffled quite a few feathers. It once again brought to light the notion that a woman needs to achieve something extraordinary to justify her existence.

It hardly needs belabouring but one cannot be complacent either: women do not need to win Olympic medals or Nobel Prizes to show why one should not kill the girl child. Sex-based discrimination is not invalidated only in the case of an extraordinary achievement. Taking someone’s life on the basis of their gender is a heinous crime. Nothing more to it. Olympic medals do not come into this debate.

The success of Sakshi Malik and P.V. Sindhu is remarkable because they stand out in an oppressive society for women; their battle is also against a disheartening history in sport for the country. For Indians who spend their days and months following the national teams and players in sporting contests there are few waterfalls of joy. Most of them run dry. A sense of entitlement covers our mind when the Olympics arrive. We suddenly feel there will be a rush of medals but the waterfall cannot rejuvenate itself in days.

In his richly evocative piece on the experience of following India at the Olympics, Amitava Kumar made a piercing observation. “Those experiencing humiliation tend to belong to what used to be called the leisure class; the athlete soldiering on the field is often from poor, disadvantaged strata.”

This is what makes any achievement by an Indian sportsperson so exceptional. There are many reasons to not pursue the endeavour. In fact, it is not a system meant to produce athletes. It takes an irrational dedication, like the support given to Sakshi by her mother Sudesh who ensured the Malik family moved closer to her training stadium in Rohtak. The mother, a former anganwadi supervisor; her father Sukhbir drives state buses in Delhi. Ends may have been met but Sakshi’s ends were arguably not worth seeking. Perhaps they were if you think like a wrestler who overturns a deficit in every round to win an Olympic medal.

Indian sportspersons, for better or worse, have always carried the impression of lacking the hard touch. Tales from the past are full of men and women who let glory slip past them. Some of them apocryphal, some of them baseless but enough of them true for the stereotype to remain. We don’t do ruthless well.

Sakshi Malik and Sindhu counter that narrative. When things got tight in her semifinal against the Japanese Nozomi Okuhara, Sindhu responded by winning 11 points in a row to book her place in the final. In the gold medal match, a lesser player would have faded in face of Carolina Marin’s domineering onslaught. But Sindhu won five consecutive points to take the first game. The eventual loss that resulted in a silver medal was a consequence of a better player besting the Indian star. Nerves did not come into it.

The battle in the face of adversity is a romantic metaphor for the struggles women have to face in every sphere of life in India. The limits placed on them by patriarchal notions serve to distance them from the sporting arena. This is why it is heartening to see Sakshi Malik and Sindhu respond with a never-say-die attitude. A lesson in fortitude.

But it would be advisable to exercise scepticism in light of their success. We don’t have any evidence to suggest that sporting victories can cause large-change social transformations. But victories like these dent the barricades that lie in front of a progressive society. Sakshi’s win is another attack on the authoritarian diktats that tell women to comport publicly in a certain fashion; Sindhu’s success is another answer to a society that expects its women to be docile.

This is why there is a need to be responsible in the aftermath of this success. These medals are not just monoliths that will remind us of what was achieved on-field, but also the need to address how we deal with accomplishments of women in sport.

A recent study on media and women’s sport at Cambridge University showed that female athletes are often not given the credit they deserve. Their achievements are underplayed and infantilising language is used to refer to them. Even when they get the attention, it is often for reasons other than their on-field exploits. It has more to do with their appearance, clothing and other things that evoke sexualised images.

There have been many such instances at the ongoing Olympics.  Women continue to battle for their rightful place in sport. This is why it’s thoroughly disrespectful when a television news anchor calls Sakshi Malik a “kid.” When the Prime Minister of the country links her achievement to a festival that paints women as inferior beings. The auspicious occasion should be her success alone. India’s daughter. India’s sister. Why not just an Indian woman?

Such patronising discourse harms the gains made by path-breaking athletes like Sakshi Malik and P.V. Sindhu. They are worthy of respect as women who are very good at what they do. And even when they fail to win, they remain worthy of our respect and time.

A much-discussed (below) by Shobhaa De early in the Olympics had caused significant outrage in public. However, the response to it in the past few days has played into the hands of the crass opinion. A series of headlines have claimed that Malik and Sindhu’s success have provided the ‘perfect’ riposte to Shobhaa De. But what if they had not gained the medals? Would there have been no response to her insignificant tweet? Would the argument have been lost?

This is why it’s disingenuous to frame the argument on the shoulders of victory. Even if Indian athletes return empty-handed, they remain worthy of our respect, for they have chosen a battle they are likely to lose. Stymied by the system, they achieve in spite of the obstacles posed in front of them.

Imagine running a 100m race with floating hurdles. As you run, some bricks are thrown at you that you need to evade. If you can fathom the level of competence that would be required to pass that test, you can get a fair idea of the challenges faced by Indian athletes. Of course, this cannot serve to excuse every poor performance – but the key is placing the situation in context. When you do not, you end up focusing on the selfies, Raksha Bandhan and what not.

Of course, women have it even tougher. If a female athlete needs to accomplish extraordinary tasks in order to be acknowledged as ‘India’s daughter’, then what status does she enjoy before that? A pariah? A burden? Is her existence an argument against the girl child?

This is the dangerous territory that ill-informed opinions inhabit. Sushma Swaraj’s response, though, was heart-warming. One can only wish that it also breaks a few grounds for an empathy-driven approach to sportspersons, even if a wise person would not bet on it.

Last week, Dutee Chand finished 50th in the women’s 100m qualification round. It was an unremarkable display but for one reason – Dutee Chand ran. Hers is a complex case and this is not the place to discuss it in full detail; to do anything less would be unjust. But it would be remiss if one did not mention that Chand has been at the forefront of the movement that is seeking a wider understanding of gender in sport, and at large. With a final decision in abeyance, she is allowed to participate in international competitions for now.

Chand did not win a medal but she is an Indian woman, too. She is not a woman who conforms to the narrow limits society places on female bodies; rather, she is someone who has fought her case to be seen as different, and is yet be accepted as a woman. She is really not different from Sindhu and Sakshi. They have challenged stereotypes in elite sport; Chand is leading a similar fight. Even when she does not win a medal, we need to be proud of her as an Indian woman. She is not just a sister or a daughter. She is a woman who is fighting for her rightful place in history. She is part of our family.

Priyansh is a Chevening Scholar studying the sociology of sport at Loughborough University, United Kingdom.

AIIMS Study Shows Female Foeticide Rampant in South Delhi

Between 1996 and 2012, 238 foetuses and newborn children were abandoned in South Delhi.

Credit: Vinoth Chandar/Flickr CC BY 2.0

Credit: Vinoth Chandar/Flickr CC BY 2.0

 New Delhi: Posh South Delhi has a dark secret, as an AIIMS study found. Two hundred and thirty eight foetuses and newborns were abandoned in the area between 1996-2012, pointing towards female foeticide in the national capital.

The recent study by the premier medical institution also suggested that nearly 35% of the cases in these 17 years were stillborn, 29% were born alive and 36% were born before the period of viability.

“Among the live born, death by homicide was more common than a natural death and most were left by the roadside,” it says.

Among the total number of cases, males were predominant, but on closer examination it was observed that “females out-numbered males” among the foetuses five month (20 weeks) of gestational age, Dr. C. Behera, one of the co-authors, said.

“Owing to the societal bias in favour of a male, this could mean that selective female foeticide happened during this period. In India, medical abortion is allowed only up to 20 weeks of gestational age and criminal abortions and selective female foeticide subsequent to antenatal sex determination are more likely before 20 weeks of pregnancy,” he said.

This is the first study from India to discuss all forensically-known cases of abandoned foetuses and newborns over 17 years from the region of South Delhi, claimed the study published in the latest issue of the Medico-Legal Journal in the UK.

“Though we analysed autopsy reports of such cases in our own jurisdiction area, that is, South Delhi, similar cases have also been reported in other areas, though we do not have any definitive study on that. But I can tell you that 238 foetuses and newborns abandoned is only the tip of the iceberg for Delhi,” Behera said.

Foeticide and abandonment of newborns are important, albeit frequently neglected, issues. Concealment of child birth is often seen in the setting of unwanted pregnancy which has been recognised as one of the most important factors in both the cases.

Among the live born cases, the majority of the deaths were attributed to murder (77% ), followed by natural causes (19%) and accidental (1%), the study said.