YOGESH CHANDRA
A retired Banker and a proud father of a son and a daughter-inlaw ,and Grandfather of two sweet kids..a boy and a girl
As in case of many , I am also deeply anguished and disturbed about the recent unfortunate incidents happening in our country. Each day , it is a sad dawn when we see half the newspaper headlines , ridiculing us and jeering at our helplessness. What is repeatedly going wrong ? Where are we erring in bringing up our children ? These are the broad questions that agitate our mind…Here I wish to raise two important issues that may throw some light on possible solutions to these problems.
To my mind , there is an imperative need to brainstorm on two vital aspects of this malaise…
1. Is it not the time to redefine , the term “Values” , which we keep harping on that both sexes should follow…In fact , there are two sets of values , one for men and the other for women…and the set of values , made for women is much more stringent , which even talks about , how should they dress up, where should they go , and even how should they walk and whom should they talk or not talk to..and why should they study, when ,they think that their ultimate objective is to bear and rear children , prepare food and should be the last person to eat after everyone in the family has eaten..strange…why not eat together??? All these , shall I call them , parental recordings even in the so-called civilised world need to be redefined…
2. After such a crime is committed and the matter stands reported to law.., why should we just sit back and relax , saying that now law will take its own course…With all respect to our country’s legal system , why can’t we think of devising ways and means that the law takes a faster course and comes to conclusion within a given frame of time..Besides establishing fast track courts , is there not a need of making suitable amendments in the penal code and/ or criminal procedure to achieve justice expeditiously..Though I have never been a student of law, but I strongly feel that there is need for legal experts to sit together and think about it….as we all know that ‘Justice delayed is Justice denied’….
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I am very glad to be a student of Study Hall because our school is fighting against women rights!!! One day I was watching tv abp new in that they were telling that a few days ago, three-month-old Afreen died of cardiac arrest in Bengaluru. She was allegedly abused by her father, who apparently was upset about having a daughter instead of a son.
In a similar case in March, another ‘unwanted daughter’ and victim of trafficking, was battered to death in the capital New Delhi.
On Tuesday, a man was arrested in Amritsar for allegedly strangling his wife for giving birth to a third girl.
Girls are being killed across India, while female foetuses are abandoned on streets.
At the root of the age-old preference for sons is the perception that girls are an economic burden , while sons are the breadwinners of the family who will look after their parents in old age, said Gita Aravamudan, the author of Disappearing Daughters, a book about female foeticide.
Deadliest place for girl child
The United Nations ranks India as the deadliest place for female children. Data released in February by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs revealed that an Indian girl of age one to five years was 75 per cent more likely to die than a boy of the same age group. The data showed that India also had the worst record in female infant mortality. This is in a country with a female president, Pratibha Patil, and female chair of the ruling coalition party, Sonia Gandhi.
A study on birth rates in India over the past 20 years determined that the country had 10 million ‘missing’ female births.
According to the 2011 census, the child sex ratio was 914 girls for every 1,000 boys — the worst since the country’s independence. The global discrepancy at birth is about 950 girls for every 1,000 boys.
Adverse gender ratio
Urban areas, including those in economically developed states such as Gujarat, have emerged as centres of foeticide, recording adverse gender ratios as low as 770 girls per 1,000 boys. Studies also indicate that the more educated a woman is, the more likely she is to choose a boy if she decides to have a single child.
“It’s almost as if education, wealth and technology are conspiring to work against the girl child and this manifests in rampant foeticide, infanticide and trafficking of girls,” said Harpal Singh, an industrialist who runs non-profit organisation Nanhi Chhaan.
“Some studies project that by 2025 there will be 20 million boys of marriageable age, who will not be able to find a partner.” The 1994 Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act was aimed at preventing misuse of diagnostic techniques and curbing foeticide, but its implementation is weak.
“In the last 15 years of the law, 600 cases were brought to court of which only 80 have seen conviction,” Singh said, backing calls for stricter punishment by fast-track courts.
Policies and laws that lead to gender inequalities also need to be amended, experts say, for instance by bringing equality in inheritance and property rights.
“The government has to go beyond tokenism,” says Shanta Sinha, chairwoman of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Very well researched Ritik! So how can we change India from being the ‘deadliest place for girls” to being the ‘friendliest place for girls’. What can we all do? You and your friends, your parents and theirs, educators like me and your teachers and the government?
I would love to hear your ideas on this.
Urvashi Aunty
THank you for your comments Yogesh! We need more men on our campaign and more fathers of sons who can raise their sons to be gentlemen with a correct idea of what constitutes ‘manhood’! Do keep writing!
best
Urvashi
My feelings about these case was that this was shameful and disgusting for the country.
My feelings now are that even now these cases are still taking place everyday.No cure for them.
These criminal are less than those civilized ones but crimes are more.
The culprits must rot in jail for their whole life.