Paraya dhan- Shameful facts...

Jai Hind all Indian Brothers (and sisters!),

Please read these stories carefully-(true stories)

1. Ranu, mother of one son, killed her first two children by throttling them within a day of their birth. Both the babies were girls. Married at the age of 18, she became pregnant 7 times. Teo sons died due to ill health, two pregnancies were terminated as the foetuses were females, and two infants were killed. One child, a boy, is alive.

Ranu wants another son. She says clearly and firmly that she will kill other children if they are girls, because she hardly has any money to give them at the time of their wedding.

Neither Ranu nor her family members express sorrow on the death of the baby girls as they consider a girl child a ‘trouble maker’.

Ranu explains, ‘The practice of eliminating females continues in some districts of Rajasthan including our village. The girl child is killed by putting a sand bag on her face or by throttling her. It is not a rare phenomenon. It happens without any hindrance’

2. Mr. & Mrs. Ravi have 3 children. Their eldest daughter is 23 years old, a second daughter is 21, and son is 10. Before delivering their son, Mrs. Ravi undertook 9 sex determination tests and had 8 pregnancies medically terminated.

She died two days after giving birth to their son. Her doctor had advised her not to get pregnant as it would pose threat to her life.

Mr. Ravi is senior executive in a multinational company and the late Mrs. Ravi was a teacher in a public school.

(Source for above stories- UNPFA supported study- ‘Adverse sex ratio in Rajasthan’)

Please have a look at this latest report by

1. United nations population fund
2. Ministry of health & family welfare
3. Office of registrar general and census commissioner, India

Published in Nov 2003

Title- ‘missing’….mapping the adverse child sex ratio in India

Indians total population on 1^st march 2003- 1.03 billion persons. With this India became the second country in the world, after China, to cross the one billion mark.

Strong preference for son over daughter has led to serious decline in child sex ratio in India.

The data published is as follows- It divides state population into following subgroups and assigns each district to one of these groups-

950 & above girls per 1000 boys

900-949

850-899

800-849

Below 800

India as a whole-

National average- 927 girls per 1000 boys.

Punjab-

Total districts-18

950 & above girls per 1000 boys- 0

900-949- 0

850-899- 0

800-849- 7

Below 800- 11

Haryana-

Total districts- 19

950 & above girls per 1000 boys- 0

900-949- 0

850-899- 2

800-849- 12

Below 800- 5

Gujarat-

Total districts- 24

950 & above girls per 1000 boys- 3

900-949- 5

850-899- 12

800-849- 3

Below 800- 1

Delhi-

Total districts/regions- 9

950 & above girls per 1000 boys- 0

900-949- 1

850-899- 7

800-849- 1

Below 800- 0

Rajasthan-

Total districts- 33

950 & above girls per 1000 boys- 3

900-949- 20

850-899- 10

800-849- 0

Below 800- 0

Maharashtra-

Total districts- 33

950 & above girls per 1000 boys- 5

900-949- 20

850-899- 8

800-849- 0

Below 800- 0

Tamilnadu-

Total districts- 29

950 & above girls per 1000 boys- 16

900-949- 9

850-899- 3

800-849- 1

Below 800- 0

Himachal Pradesh-

Total districts- 12

950 & above girls per 1000 boys- 3

900-949- 4

850-899- 2

800-849- 2

Below 800- 0

(Kinnur data unavailable)

Other states have little better sex ratio, especially south Indian states have still maintained 1991 census profile (West Bengal, Kerala, Orissa, North East India, Kashmir, Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh)

There are reasons to believe that it is increasingly becoming a common practice across India to determine the sex of the unborn child or foetus and eliminate it if the foetus is found to be a female. This practice is referred to as pre-birth elimination of females.

In Indian context, the strong preference for son is because of following socioeconomic and cultural factors-

1. Son is supposed to support during old age
2. Son is required to perform religious rites at cremation
3. Dowry practice makes female child unwanted.
4. Females are viewed as ‘paraya dhan’ (to be married and sent away)

What do you think on this matter?

What do you think is the solution on this really shameful situation in India?

Do you think education really changes people’s views? (The report shows that all backward and tribal districts had very good sex ratio)

Please do write and post a reply by clicking the option at the bottom of this article.

Jai Bharat (Mata??)