The Merits of Female Foeticide

For those who look for a woman’s right to survival, health, education, security, dignity, the search is an endless one. It boils down to the fact that female foeticide, as ominous as it does look, might be the best option of preventing a woman from suffering the continual ills of our society. Another point equally important is that a family that wants to go in for female foeticide, is no place where society, governments, should interfere and forcefully bring a female child in. In the best of families, a girl child is deprived of the kind of diet, education, status her male sibling gets. Think what would be the future of an unwanted girl child. She would be cursed day and night, if not verbally then in the continuous thought process of her own parents.

Till some years ago, abortion was illegal- Not only in India but across the world. Catholicism still theoretically prohibits abortions. But with the advances made during the last century it was understood, to bring in a child or not has to be decided by the parents, the family that will ultimately bear the burden of the child. And so world over, one country after another, did change its rulebook and now abortion is legal.

In India there are multiple instances where after the birth of a girl the newborn is placed on the earth and the leg of a cot is placed upon its small chest, pressed down till the infant succumbs to the pressure. The infant dies right there, under that cot. Newborn girls are buried alive in their own homestead. Poisoned, thrown away alive to be eaten by dogs and pigs, unwanted daughters are murdered with as much ingenuity as is possible for the family.
If the family cannot do this then we can be sure the little girl will receive little love. If the family be crude and insensitive, then a lot of open curses, if not then dark looks always making her feel a culprit, her birth her own transgression for which she would forever feel guilty and spend each day in remorse why she was ever born. An unwanted child, and to top it, a daughter - nothing can be more damaging and hurtful to an individuals growing up phase.

With the increasing graph of crime against women in India, we can be sure of her facing all of them during her school-college days. Eve teasing, sexual harassment, verbal insults all will be her lot, as of her contemporaries. If she grows up to be a professional, she will face gender discrimination at workplace. That’s an established trend in India and also across the world. Hilary Clinton, in the Presidential race faces maximum resistance because of her gender.

If our ‘unwanted daughter’ is married away and if fortunately she finds a good partner she might lead a good and peaceful life and think after all, her birth was not wholly a calamity. That she, after suffering all those years, has finally found salvation. If she is not so lucky, chances are she will suffer indignities at the hands of husband, in-laws who wish for more services, dowry, greater satisfaction on any imagined front from the luckless girl. If her doom follows her to her new home, she might suffer emotional, financial as well as physical violence. The violence can end if she can fight it alone, for we can be sure of no support forthcoming from parents who have all but washed their hands of the ‘unwanted’ stigma of a child. The violence can carry on unabated, giving a man and his family a smug feeling of power over an unarmed, physically weak woman. Or the violence can end in her untimely death; homicide or suicide, whichever way deliverance ultimately comes.

Across India instances have come to light where not only domestic violence but also as harmless looking an offence as eve teasing, can end in getting the victim torched to death by the offenders- Death as result of fighting eve teasing? How unthinkable it gets. Maybe the men and women who go in for female foeticide want to avoid just this? Maybe by forcefully making a girl-child be born to such a society, we, the defenders of womanhood, are in effect doing a great disservice to the sex?

The dwindling number of women as compared to men, or gender-imbalance, is a very potent argument in favor of anti-female-foeticide campaign. Against this, let’s study this. There are some tribes in India where this imbalance is enough to make the men pay bride price for women. One such case- where a man gave Rs 15,000 as bride price some five years ago and secured a young and pretty Mehubai for himself. For some reasons she got annoyed and went back to her parents. The parents rather than being worried for an added mouth to feed, were ecstatic for now the bride price had gone up to Rs 35,000. The father negotiated another match for Mehubai. The new groom will pay 35 k, the father will return 15 k to the ex-husband, marry his daughter away again, and nobody the loser but the first groom. Now the first groom had collected all his resources and 15k was his limit. If he wants another bride he has to have 20k more of money that is just out of his power. So by hook or by crook he needs Mehubai back. He wants to meet her but her father stands in his path. We found him trying to send a letter through a field urchin, paying the brat 10 for every attempted letter of his! Think how valued Mehubai must feel.

Another holier-than-thou reaction to this (all these reactions come from women themselves smugly ensconced in the lap of advanced society, with well protected status) – ‘but the woman (Mehubai) is misused! What of her getting into the habit of changing men? She might then go on and change men every year!’ 

Big deal. I would any day wish for my women to ‘change men every year’, then to be placed under a cot and killed. I would any day wish for my women to be as well treated, by her parents, her husband, as Mehubai, then to see her die everyday as an ‘unwanted daughter’, an eternally accursed woman.

The society that treats women so abominably, and gets away with it, might as well have no women, no girl child born into it. I also believe this imbalance might be the only thing that would ultimately get women treated better. Yes, sexual crime will rise. Yet the number of in-house, immediately-after-birth-killings will go down. And with rising value of the girl security will increase, the family guarding their treasure well. That is the kind of life I wish for my women. Female-foeticide might sound and look intimidating, yet for those who want to opt for it, it is the best solution possible. One day, like abortions are now legal, female foeticide too will be legalized. Inherent wisdom and insight is all it requires. 

                                                                                                                        Chandana C. Arora

                                                                                          aroachandana@yahoo.com

 

Victory or animals: MP bans buffalo fights

After learning that buffalo are being forced to participate in fights until they are bloody, injured and exhausted, PETA sent an urgent letter to Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Honourable Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, asking that the fights be stopped. The Animal Husbandry Department immediately directed the district administration to intercede to stop the illegal fights, in which countless bulls suffer and die.

In these horrific spectacles, bulls are put into rudimentary rings where they gouge each other with their horns and hooves. Spectators goad the animals, beat on drums and cymbals, and try to work the animals into a frenzy as they vie to win televisions, MP3 players or clocks. The bulls suffer serious injuries, and many of the animals die. The fights also put people at risk – the buffalo sometimes run amok, forcing spectators to run for safety.

These buffalo fights violate the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, which specifically prohibits inciting animals to fight and organising animal fights. "It is sad that these animals are made to suffer in the name of 'entertainment'", says PETA India campaigns coordinator Sachin Bangera. "You can see fear and confusion in the eyes of the buffalo as they try to flee."

 

                                                                                            By Sachin Bangera- SachinB@petindia.org