And the groom who walks there
In his turban and tie,
Needs to go to the doctor
To get a new spine;
His words are so limp
And his hands are so soft,
But the hole in his heart
He’s filled up with rocks.

There’s a chamber of horror,
There’s fear in the night,
’Cause something is lurking there
Just out of sight;
Keep your light on a-burning
And your eyes open wide,
’Cause this land is a-spinning,
It’s spinning, into the night.

There’s a girl been served up
On a plate like a lamb
To be eaten alive
By some strange, hungry man;
Now they wipe their lips clean
And they burp and they laugh,
And they throw the bones down
To their sons in the dark.

There’s a woman I’ve seen weeping
Like her soul’s torn apart,
There’s a darkness descending
That’s squeezing my heart,
I’ve seen men who’ve grown horns
And hooves like a goat,
But they’re clad in white suits
With gold chains round their throats.

There’s a chamber of horror,
There’s fear in the night,
’Cause something is happening there
Just out of sight;
Keep your light on a-burning
And your eyes open wide,
’Cause this land is a-spinning,
It’s spinning, into the night.

Well, they’re playing their parts well
In society’s cruel game,
And nobody questions,
Nobody feels shame;
My daughters are lined up
Against a wall of hard hearts,
To be pierced one by one,
And to bleed in the dark.

Now the babies are bloody
From the marks of strange teeth,
You can find them in sewers
Beneath the broad streets,
Thrice damned is the city
And thrice damned is the land
That waters its gardens
With the blood of these lambs.

There’s a chamber of horror,
There’s fear in the night,
’Cause something is lurking there
Just out of sight;
Keep your light on a-burning
And your eyes open wide,
’Cause this land is a-spinning,
It’s spinning, into the night.

~ Indrajit Sundaram © 2007.

her first short gasps
in atmosphere of
disappointment
a girl child emerges
to a life
of painful struggle
and dignity denied

her early childhood
has its happy times
when boys and girls
create much fun
with water, mud and stones
spontaneous joy and
easy laughter for a time
obliterate the cruel
boundaries
of gender

a girl child plays
watched in sorrow
with foreboding
by her mother

the years roll on
and by the age of 12
she’s learned her place
of menial servitude

and as she works at home
a cloud of fear
seems ever present
smothering
her dreams

a girl child
contemplates the future
and tears
drop
silently.

~Kate Marsden

Despite what the scriptures say, India has been home to some of the most barbaric acts against women, including dowry deaths, trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation alarmingly high cases of rape, molestation, female infanticide and foeticide. The secondary status of women in our society, considering them a commodity is the root cause of these atrocities. The menace of dowry, fear of loss of face in local community and a desire to keep the wealth within the family are all leading to unsafe abortions and trafficking of children. The apathetic attitude of the administration and ineffective legislative implementation further adds to the woes of girl child in India.

Poverty and lack of education are often cited as reasons for this discrimination in India. However the data shows otherwise. Discrimination against women seems to more prevalent in educated and affluent sections of the society.

An extraordinary four-year research in the heart of rural India, post 2001 Census, shows that people living in areas with a higher level of education and affluence slaughter more female foetuses than those languishing in the social and economic backwaters.
The study, funded by the Swedish Research Council and carried out by the economic history department of Lund University as part of its research on developing economies, shows that “progressive areas” of India have a lower child sex ratio (CSR). Researchers claim that “ill-focused development is triggering a conscious choice to eliminate the girl child from the family”.

The study carried out in five states – Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal – revealed wide differences in sex ratio in villages. It showed a strong shift from “son preference to active daughter discrimination”. 
Factors like nuclear families, high education cost and access to technology contribute to it, say researchers Mattias Larsen and Neelambar Hatti. Discrimination against girls is much higher where mothers are literate.

Child Sex Ratio is a sensitive indicator that shows the status of women in a country. The sex ratio among children was 940:1000 in India during 2011 census and is continuously declining. Female fetuses are selectively aborted after illegal pre-natal sex determination. According to the 2011 census, the population of India is 1210.19 million, out of which 623.72 million (51.54%) are males and 586.46 million (48.46%) are females. Despite these horrific numbers, foetal sex determination and gender selective abortion by unethical medical professionals has today grown into a Rs. 1,000 crore industry (US$ 244 million).

Religion operates alongside other cultural and economic factors in lowering the status of women. The adverse sex ratio has been linked with the low status of women in Indian communities, both Hindu and Muslims. The status of women in a society can be determined by their education, health, and economic role, presence in the professions and management, and decision-making power within the family. It is deeply influenced by the beliefs and values of society. Islam permits polygamy and gives women fewer rights than men. Among Hindus, preference for the male child is likewise deeply enshrined in belief and practice. The Ramayana and the Manusmriti (the Laws of Manu) represent the ideal woman as obedient and submissive, and always needing the care of a male: first father, then husband, then son.

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. Modern medical technology is used in the service of this religion-driven devaluing of women and girls. The practice of dowry has spread nationwide, to communities and castes in which it had never been the custom, fuelled by consumerism and emulation of upper caste practices. In the majority of cases, the legal system has no impact on the practice of dowry. It is estimated that a dowry death occurs in India every 93 minutes. The need for a dowry for girl children, and the ability to demand a dowry for boys exerts considerable economic pressure on families to use any means to avoid having girls, who are seen as a liability. Sonalda Desai has reported that there are posters in Bombay advertising sex-determination tests that read, ‘It is better to pay 500 Rs now than 50,000 Rs (in dowry) later’.

Women and Developments in Reproductive Technology Abortion was legalized in India in 1971 (Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act) to strengthen humanitarian values (pregnancy can be aborted if it is a result of sexual assault, contraceptive failure, if the baby would be severely handicapped, or if the mother is incapable of bearing a healthy child). Amniocentesis was introduced in 1975 to detect foetal abnormalities but it soon began to be used for determining the sex of the baby.

Ultrasound scanning, being a non-invasive technique, quickly gained popularity and is now available in some of the most remote rural areas. Both techniques are now being used for sex determination with the intention of abortion if the foetus turns out to be female. These methods do not involve manipulation of genetic material to select the sex of a baby. Recent preconception gender selection (PGS), however, includes flow cytometry, preimplantation gender determination of the embryo, and in vitro fertilization to ensure the birth of a baby of the desired sex without undergoing abortion. In PGS, X and Y sperms are separated and the enriched sperms are used to fertilize the ovum. The method was intended to reduce the risk of diseases related to the X chromosome, which are far more likely to occur in boys than in girls (who have two X chromosomes). Ironically, it is being used in India to avoid giving birth to girl children.

A number of factors, including neglect of female infants and better healthcare to males might be one reason accounting for the decline in sex ratio, experts said. 
There are other factors responsible, too, for the lopsided ratio. Experts feel that the most important of these are female infanticide and foeticide, which are, unlike other countries, very closely linked in our country.

“In the ultimate analysis, the fight against female infanticide will have to be linked to the fight against the dominant culture of patriarchy, sanctioned and supported by useless religious obscurantism”, says Dr Athreya.

Consequences of Female Foeticide

Given the lower value placed on women in Indian society, prenatal sex determination with the intention of preventing female births must be viewed as a manifestation of violence against women, a violation of their human rights. The pregnant woman, though often equally anxious to have a boy, is frequently pressurized to undergo such procedures. Many women suffer from psychological trauma as a result of forcibly undergoing repeated abortions. More generally, demographers warn that in the next twenty years there will be a shortage of brides in the marriage market mainly because of the adverse juvenile sex ratio, combined with an overall decline in fertility. While fertility is declining more rapidly in urban and educated families, nevertheless the preference for male children remains strong. For these families, modern medical technologies are within easy reach. Thus selective abortion and sex selection are becoming more common.

In rural areas, as the number of marriageable women declines, men would tend to marry younger women, leading to a rise in fertility rates and thus a high rate of population growth. The abduction of girls is an associated phenomenon. The Hindustan Times recently reported that young girls from Assam and West Bengal are kidnapped and sold into marriage in neighbouring Haryana.

The impact on society should not be underestimated. A society with a preponderance of unmarried young men is prone to particular dangers. More women are likely to be exploited as sex workers. Increases in molestations and rape are an obvious result. The sharp rise in sex crimes in Delhi have been attributed to the unequal sex ratio.

Prevention of Sex Determination

In 1994, the Government of India passed the Pre- conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act with the aim of preventing female foeticide. The implementation of this Act was slow. It was later amended and replaced in 2002 by the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act without ever having been properly implemented.

The Act has a central and state level Supervisory Board, an Appropriate Authority, and supporting Advisory Committee. The function of the Supervisory Board is to oversee, monitor, and make amendments to the provisions of the Act. Appropriate Authority provides registration, and conducts the administrative work involved in inspection, investigation, and the penalizing of defaulters. The Advisory Committee provides expert and technical support to the Appropriate Authority. Contravening the provisions of the Act can lead to a fine of Rs 10,000 and up to three years imprisonment for a first offence, with greater fines and longer terms of imprisonment for repeat offenders. The Appropriate Authority informs the central or state medical council to take action against medical professionals, leading to suspension or the striking off of practitioners found guilty of contravening the provisions of the Act.

Before conducting any prenatal diagnostic procedure, the medical practitioner must obtain a written consent from the pregnant woman in a local language that she understands. Prenatal tests may be performed in various specified circumstances, including risk of chromosomal abnormalities in the case of women over 35, and genetic diseases evident in the family history of the couple.

Preventing Female Foeticide

The removal of this practice in Indian society is a serious challenge. It must involve

• The empowerment of women and a strengthening of women’s rights through campaigning against practices such as dowry, and ensuring strict implementation of existing legislation.
• Ensuring the development of and access to good health care services.
• Inculcating a strong ethical code of conduct among medical professionals, beginning with their training as undergraduates.
• Simple methods of complaint registration, accessible to the poorest and most vulnerable women.
• Wide publicization in the media of the scale and seriousness of the practice. NGOs should take a key role in educating the public on this matter.
• Regular assessment of indicators of status of women in society, such as sex ratio, and female mortality, literacy, and economic participation.

It is only by a combination of monitoring, education campaigns, and effective legal implementation that the deep-seated attitudes and practices against women and girls can be eroded.

Law to prevent female foeticide is not being implemented in a proper manner, a senior Delhi government official claims so.”The law is not being implemented fully and until that happens, child sex ratio would be on a decline,” director of Census Operations (Delhi) Varsha Joshi said. Joshi, who was addressing a media consultation on ‘Declining sex ratio and census 2011′, said that government schemes are good but they alone can do nothing and a change in the mindset of people especially those living in rural areas, is required.

The objectives of ‘Let Her Live’ project of Salt Initiatives are as follows

1. To provide guidance, counseling and information for families and women to prevent unsafe abortions and illegal transfer of children
2. To provide shelter, legal help, emotional support, vocational training and facilitating social reintegration of unwed mothers and victim women.
3. To provide excellent care, medical help and affection for relinquished children
4. To find suitable families for adoption, and place the children in good homes, providing them a bright future.