THE “URBAN” FORM OF FEMALE FETICIDE

 

The shameful malpractice of female feticide or the practice of killing a girl child within or outside the mother’s womb is still prevalent in India in the current generation, even after the Govt., NGOs and other organizations taking so may schemes to eradicate this heinous act. Ideally, when we talk about female feticide, we generally feel that it is practices mostly among the uneducated or economically weaker sections of the Indian society because they perceive the girl child as a burden! However, through this piece I wanted to pen out a different side of this concept that exists in urban India, amongst educated people – maybe it doesn’t amount to ‘killing’ the girl child but has similar emotions.

According to a publication of 2015 in “Human Geographies – Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography”, the sex-ratio in India has declined from 972 females per 1000 males in 1901 to 940 females in 2011 to an abysmal 914 in 2014. There was a preconceived notion for a long time, that female feticide was a product of illiteracy and female subjugation and hence, was more prevalent in rural India. Paradoxically, as revealed by the decennial censuses held in India, in spite of the spread of female education and increasing women autonomy, especially in urban India, the strong preference for sons and the consequent elimination of the girl child has continued to increase. This trend has been further boosted by the progress in science and technology, as the techniques for the elimination of the girl child have become scientific and less risky. Thus, Female infanticide of the past has now been replaced by female foeticide in the present!!

I don’t know how many mothers of urban India have encountered this phrase in their lives – “Ladka hota to achha tha” – especially when it is NOT the first child of a couple or a second daughter, but I have come across this many times recently; not because I am a new mother but because I am a good observer. If one goes to the Gynaecology and Obsterics Dept. in any hospital of the major cities of the country and just observe the reaction of the family waiting outside the labor room, one can observe the myriad of reactions after the birth of a girl child – from the disappointed faces to the forced happiness! Yes, I agree that everyone has certain wants/desires for their family but not everything goes according to our wishes, isn’t it?  There are even incidents of people sharing the news/photographs of a newly born baby boy in the social media by each and every member of a family but not even the father shows the same enthusiasm at the birth of his daughter!

And then there is the “blame’ on the mother – “Why couldn’t she bear/conceive/give birth to a boy?” Hard as it may seem to believe, but this still happens – and it happens in our very cities, near our homes!! As a biotechnologist, I feel it is my duty to reiterate that unlike the common belief, the sex of a child is determined by the father (who carries heterozygous or XY chromosomes) and NOT the mother (who carries homozygous or XX chromosomes). The mother of a child goes through a huge hormonal, emotional, psychological upheaval in her entire period of pregnancy. After childbirth, what she needs is the care, support and love from her family, especially the father of the child. But sadly, she has to go through periodic taunts or sarcastic remarks like – “why wasn’t it a boy”; “why didn’t the doctor tell us before; he knew we wanted a male child;”; “will she also be fair and beautiful”, and many such comments. And if the girl child is born with a darker/wheatish complexion, then these comments increase manifold.

The research of 2015 also reveals a very disturbing fact existing in urban India. The educated Indian women of today are very conscious of begetting only one or two issues, but in quite a number of cases, they also want to make sure that they have at least one son to perpetuate their family and family traditions. Unlike, the traditional son-preferring women, most of whom were God-fearing, and did not prefer killing their daughters considering it as a sin, this significant proportion of the modern educated women adopt their own so-called “rational and logical thinking” - according to quite a number of these educated women, sex-selective abortion is a better way of family planning as through this they can plan both, the number and the gender composition of their offspring. Surprising isn’t it??!! We all are aware that in the present stressful lifestyle conceiving a child naturally, and giving birth in it is a huge concern. There are so many couples (even young) who are unable to have a child even by IVF. So, should the sex of the child really matter?? Shouldn’t one just focus on having a healthy baby whom one can raise safely and properly? Maybe the issue discussed in this piece doesn’t fall in the category of female feticide but it definitely raises a question on gender discrimination that exists in the minds of urban India till today at the birth of a girl child!