Female
A Curse on Our Society
India is land where people worship a myriad of female
deities in quest of wealth, wisdom and power. In this country, it is a common
sight to see thousands of couples making arduous journeys every year to shrines
of Goddesses in order to blessed with a child. But strangely enough, in this
country, a couple is said to be blessed only when it has a male child; for a
girl is never considered a blessing in our society. Her birth seems to cast a
pall of gloom over the entire family. Her birth is not rejoice, instead the
entire family mourns. The girl child in India is treated right from her birth
as an additional burden, an extra mouth to feed, a liability and another man’s
property. The birth of a son is regarded as essential in Hinduism and many
prayers, and lavish offerings are made in temples in the hope of having a male
child.
The advancement in science and technology is now used
for all the wrong reasons. Ultrasonography
, the method of using ultrasound waves to determine flaws in the human body,
is now used to find out the gender of the fetus inside the womb. Parents check
the gender of the unborn child and abort the pregnancy if it is a girl. This
has not only disturbed the sex ratio of the country but has also created
problems in the society.
Females not only face discrimination in our culture ,
but are even denied the right to be born Like many societies around the world,
society in India too is patriarchal in nature. A set hierarchical system
prevails in all tiers of the social order. The fanatic obsession with the male
sex , though, is one of a king .
Right from the ancient scriptures, one finds instances
where men are glowingly praised as the key to continue the family lineage. A
woman is force to undergo multiple pregnancies and abortions, until she
fulfills her lifelong goal of being breeding machine that produces male
offspring as per the needs of the family. In Indian society, female infeticide
has emerged as a burning social problem during the last few years. The
frequency of female feticides is indirectly estimated from the observed high
birth sex ratio the ratio of boys to girls at birth. The natural ratio is
assumed to be ideal around 103 to 107 and any number above it is considered as
suggestive of female feticides.
According to the decennial Indian census, the sex
ratio in the .6 age group in India has risen
in favour of males, from 102.4 males per 1000 females in 1961 , to 104.1
in 1981 , to 107.8 in 2001 m ti 108.8 in 2011. The child sex ratio is within the
normal narural range in all eassern and southern states of India, but
significantly higher in certain western and particularly northwestern states
such as Punjab, Haryana , and jammu and Kashmir.
Despite many laws like Pre Conception and Pre natal Diagnostic
Techniques Act of 2004 to deter and punish prenatal sex screening and female feticide,
the concern continues to grow.
It is often decried that male dominated Indian culture
is to be blamed for the declining sex ratio. The Hindu culture lays stress on
the birth of a son as he would crry the lineage further. Moreover, only through
cremation from his hands can bring moksha to the parents. In an agricultural
based country like our, more sons means more hands to work which would bring
more money. The girl child is treated as a guest who would leave some day to
join her husband’s house and the family would also have to pay dowry for her
welfare and added to that, she would not take care of her parents but a son
would.
A singular approach in tackling this malaise might not
bring about the change that is required. We cannot hope the having ;awes would
required to stop the dwindling number of girls and correct the havoc brought
about by years of systematic crime. We actually need to educate people and
create awareness about the ill effects of such a burden and are doing better
than boys in various fields. It is high time that we give the girls of this
nation this deserved place.
In the end one can only say: “save the girl child,
female feticide is a crime”. Girls should have have the right to live and
prosper.
.
.thanks for reading
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