FACT FILE
- State must empower women by affirmative discrimination in their favour.
- There has been a rampant misuse of reproductive technology in a society
characterised by a strong bias against female child.
- No one tries to understand the psyche of women, who undergo female foeticide.
- Gender bias is deeply rooted in our psyche.
- Only 25 per cent women give their consent for abortions, otherwise they are always forced for foeticide.
|
Ludhiana, September 23
Female foeticide is a complex issue. But women who undergo this procedure have quite different perception from what medical professionals, religious leaders, opinion-makers, gate-keepers of society and planners think. Since education, financial well-being, religiosity do not have any impact on the psyche of the women who undergo female foeticide, to combat this menace, the state must empower women by affirmative discrimination in their favour. These facts were put forward by Mr Anurag Aggarwal, Deputy Commissioner, from his study “Exploding myths on female foeticide” here today. He was speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day health education conference on “Reproductive rights, PNDT Act and female foeticide in rural Punjab”. The conference has been organised by the Department of Health Education and Family Welfare, Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) here, at the hospital.
Mr Aggarwal said that the Constitution of India guaranteed equality to women. It imposed a fundamental duty on its citizens to uphold the dignity of women. Despite this, India’s deep-rooted “sons only” ethos continues. New developments in medical technology had helped improve health of millions of people. One cheap and widely available test could tell the sex of an unborn child. But it was unfortunate that there was rampant misuse of reproductive technology in a society characterised by a strong bias against female child.
Mr Aggarwal said many studies had been done on gender bias and female foeticide by collecting data from doctors and other secondary sources but none had tried to understand the psyche of the women who had undergone female foeticide.
“There must be a good understanding of social, religious, economic and emotional factors, which have built gender bias in the mindset of the mother. Considering these factors, a community-based study was undertaken in rural population of Punjab. As per the findings, gender bias is ultimately responsible for female foeticide and is deeply rooted in our psyche,” maintained Mr Aggarwal.
The findings revealed that 90 per cent of the respondents agreed that boys were given preference in society. Since there had been hardly any complaints, people thought that foeticide was always with the consent of the mother and was amongst less educated and poor, who cared little for human values. The findings disclosed that there were only 25 per cent consent cases. Educated and rich were no better in this regard. Upper castes were worse, as more number of women of upper caste were forced to go in for abortion.
The study revealed that 71 per cent of the respondents went for female foeticide because they previously had daughters and wanted a son. Only 6 per cent said that daughters were a financial liability.
Mr Aggarwal stressed that as per the findings, 84 per cent women already realised that foeticide was a sin and 60 per cent of the respondents regret having undergone foeticide. The data was not significantly affected by caste, education, religion, religiosity and financial status.
The conference was attended by Dr Silas J. Charles, Director CMC, Dr T.M. Jaison, Deputy Director, CMC, Mr Satish Bansal, Ms Surinder Kaur Grewal.