Foeticide fighters

These feisty women take on the might of the jatland to secure justice for women and prevent female foeticide, writes Nitin Jugran Bahuguna

Bimla Devi, 57, of Basduda village in Rewari district of Haryana is no stranger to social boycott and ridicule. Socially ostracised by both men and women of her village, denied public services from local tradesmen and public transport operators and even brutally beaten up once while holding a women’s meeting at her home, this diminutive-sized woman has displayed hidden strength in dealing with her detractors.

Today, she is known as "Bimla pradhan", even though she is not an elected representative, because of her relentless efforts to secure justice for the most underprivileged in the community — women.

Whether it is domestic violence, adult education for women or promoting the health and well-being of the girl child by campaigning against female foeticide, Bimla is at the forefront, often collaborating with the district authorities and taking to task errant families, some of whom still harbour feelings of resentment against her.

"I have faced opposition ever since I started my community activities by facilitating an adult education centre for women in my village about 20 years ago," says Bimla. She was instrumental in mobilising the village women to organise themselves into a sangathan for collective action on issues affecting women’s well-being. "Once, during a meeting at home, a few men, armed with sticks, entered and attacked us. No villager came to our rescue," she recalls.

Now, she is on a mission to spread awareness against female foeticide. "The district administration has a committee against female foeticide and they have asked for my help," she reveals. At the same time she is critical of the authorities and questions their sincerity in tackling the issue. To illustrate this, she refers to a recent case. Bimla says she found out that her neighbour’s pregnant wife was planning to get an ultrasound test done. "I followed the couple to a Rewari hospital and had to phone the Chief Medical Officer of the hospital to prevent them from getting the procedure done."

However, the wily couple kept moving from one hospital to another, changing taxis to deter Bimla. "After a while, I had to give up as I ran out of money. I later heard that they had got the test done and left the village to get the foetus aborted as it was a girl," she rues.

Bimla can take heart from the fact that at least one Haryana village in her district seems to have woken up to this crime against the unborn girl, and the credit for that must go to the village’s female formally elected sarpanch.

When Maya Yadav, 50, of Teent village in Rewari was elected to the post of the seat reserved for women, she was initially indifferent to her responsibilities and let her husband manage the official duties. However, members of two women sangathans in the village motivated her to take interest in Panchayat activities.

Soon, Maya got involved in various social and developmental issues of the village. "I realised that the well-being and progress of our community could only be achieved by empowering women and protecting the rights of girl children," she recalls. Because of her efforts, today every girl in the village attends school.

Maya also claims that her village is the only one in the district where the sex ratio is even. This is no mean feat given that Haryana has one of the lowest gender ratios in the country with 861 women per 1,000 men, according to the 2001 Census.

She attributes this achievement to a number of factors. "The community rallies around parents of girls financially at the time of marriage. This prevents people from viewing the girl child as a financial burden," she explains.

"Also, we have stopped the practice of dowry. For this, we had to actually sensitise women more than men. Now, the practice of buying and displaying dowry items has stopped because we would not go to a wedding venue where we heard dowry was being collected," she adds.

This exemplary act of Teent villagers has inspired women’s sangathans across the district. "We have been networking with other sangathans in the district and over the years have attempted to prevent female foeticide, on an average dealing with 15 to 20 cases a month," informs Bimla. They succeed at times in preventing gender-specific abortions, but often their efforts fail. "There are two reasons for this failure. Firstly, the preference for the male child is so strong that no amount of reasoning or threats make any difference to the errant family," observes Sunder Lal, Director of the Social Centre for Rural Initiative and Advancement, a local NGO. "Secondly, such abortions form a well-entrenched business with a large network of beneficiaries," he adds.

The situation is difficult but it does not dishearten women like Bimla. She claims that in fact it only "inspires us women to fight even more vigorously for the right of the unborn girl child." — WFS