‘Sugar and spice make everything nice- that is what little girls are made up of.’
Though with a lot of shame and disappointment, let us, fellow Indians, accept the fact that our country is home to a relatively large population of cruel, insensitive and heartless parents who decide to get their baby child ‘Killed’ (No, infanticide is not the right word, ‘killed’ it is.) simply because of the fact that she was destined to be born as a girl child. If a girl has the sugar and spice to make everything nice, then why are they still not allowed an entry into the world? Why then, do we end their lives even before it begins?
Population censuses in India show that the number of girls has been falling steadily for the past 20 years relative to the number of boys. For every 1,000 boys up to the age of six the number of girls dropped from 962 in 1981 to 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001. (Source: www.catherineofsiena.net) So the next time, before we stand up and say with all pride that women in our country are treated no less than ‘God’, let us bear in mind that the ‘women are god’ situation will take quite some time to place itself in our society, considering the Infanticide rates of our country, which we obviously are ashamed of.
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Exploring the reasons for this issue is very important. Among all the issues that Indians have been facing over the years, Female infanticide is probably the oldest, for post and pre independence periods did not make a very big difference in the way some of them treated their daughters. Just like in the case of every issue in India, ‘Poverty’ is the villain of the stories of these little girls (Or what do we call them? Not yet born girls?). Poor parents often tend to have an understanding that all the money, love and affection they shower on their children is an investment that they are making. A boy child would mean-a smart young fellow on whom all the money could be spent for the sake of quality education. Once working, this property will produce returns. On the other hand, a girl child would mean- A miniature of a domestic-servant on whom spending money is foolishness simply because once she is married, she leaves behind nothing for the parents except for their so-called-dowry-paying-burden. This mentality, as all ‘sensible’ humans would say is pure cruelty. Kill your child and you have the hell gates open for you, I bet.
Coming to the solutions. Pressing issues like corruption, illiteracy etc. may have a direct solution, but this issue cannot be dealt with directly. We have reached a state where we are expecting the government to go to the parents and convince them not to kill their own girl child? Pathetic! The only solution is having a change in heart. For protecting girl children, we need the parents to think that they can too serve as that ‘Resource’ that they crave for. For this, empowerment and education of women should be given top priority.
Hoping only every such parent could bear this philosophy in mind- ‘I Love my mother and why would I not want to pour life into another such girl who would grow up to be a mother one day just like my mother is?’
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