Disclaimer: Ok i broke my promise of not writing any review on Mouthshut, but I felt I had to. I just felt had to reach out to more people. And yes I know this topic is not the right one for my article, but I couldnt find any other category for this. **So please bear this in mind when you read and rate my review. Also this is from an article which I had written way back in 2004, but I still feel its relevant as nothing has changed much since then, at least in this regard.
I guess it was the absence of my little daughters that motivated me to write this. You go home, tired after a hard day’s work, and on ringing the bell, you find two pairs of feet, running, with a voice shouting out for you, hands outstretched, and a broad smile on her face. Yes thats how a small angel looks like. And yet I dont understand how can people even think of losing such a wonderful gift in life, by terminating it? I feel so lonely without my daughters, and there are people who want to kill them even before they are born. And that took me back a couple of years back, where I glanced upon an issue of India Today **with a small child on it’s cover. And then when I read, the cover story, it just hit me. Was this small innocent one killed before birth, just to satisfy some outdated social norms? Why was she murdered? Is it because the small one couldnt even raise a voice? And if we kill some one before they are even born, just because she is a girl, I want to ask something, are you people different from people who murder in the name of religion or race? You are no worse than gangsters who murder only for sake of money? You might be having fancy degrees and tons of money, but you are the biggest loser in life. Shame on such people.
What I found most shocking was female infanticide takes place in larger numbers in the supposedly progressive and rich states of Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana and Delhi. and what is more shocking is that the South West district of Delhi, supposedly the richest and most educated region in the country has one of the lowest male- female ratio. What sort of progress can we claim, if
we murder the female foetus in its womb itself? Hell, even the most savage tribes in Africa and Amazon would never do such a thing. And we call ourselves civilized and boasting of a 1000 year culture. Culture? Do those people who murder their daughters, even know what is culture? I dont know if female infanticide is sanctioned any where in our culture, but if it is throw out all the offending verses lock, stock and barrel.
There is nothing sacred in murdering a innocent, unborn child just because she happens to be a girl. Its a crime, a sheer crime, and the accused needs to hang from the nearest lamp post.And the fact that most of the people indulging in this act happen to be relatively well off, makes this crime doubly reprehensible. Whats the use of boasting of all those IIT, IIM degrees and the dollars you make, if you kill a foetus just because she happens to be female? Throw all those degrees into the gutter, for it indicates, that whatever your educational qualification might be, your mind is still shallow and no better than a primitive savage.
Maybe problem lies in the way we educate our kids and bring them up. We want our children to be doctors, engineers, MBA’s, software professionals and what not, but how many of us have seriously contemplated into bringing them up as good human beings.I know morality is a grey area, but we do need to bring up our children with certain values, else we would just end up as a sick society( in fact we are already on the way to that). The onus lies on the parents to inculcate the moral values in the children, but many of them fail to do so. How could they, when a father tells his son, to look for a job where he wouldnt have to work hard and make a lot of money? When a father openly tells his son, that he would have to get back the money spent on his education through dowry? How can it be otherwise, when we consider our daughters a load, which needs to be cast off, rather than an individual who needs to be nurtured and cared for? Times are changing though and many educated individuals and even those not so well educated, dont really differentiate between male and female progeny. But there are enough number of people who still live in bygone times and crave for a son. These people are still stuck in a time warp and insist on family izzat. Well I can call them only one thing-**LOSERS. These people are the real losers and the real scum of society. People who can’t confront the real world, and who make an innocent young girl the scapegoat, and murder her. Such people are the real scum of society.
So what should be done to tackle this problem? **First and foremost the law needs to be implemented in toto. Make this a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment. I know there are people who would say that this is a social problem and people need to be educated. But we cannot wait for such changes to happen, because by that time, more and more innocent girls would
have been killed, and it would have been too late. A crime is a crime and the punishment has to be given for that.Its only the fear of law that can stop people from commiting crimes. But like as some people told, just enacting laws wouldnt solve this problem.
A national awareness movement needs to be raised against this on the lines of our literacy and polio campaigns. Since religion is a major factor, we could get major religious figures to issue dictats against this. The Sikh priests have already taken a lead in this. For a change the RSS-VHP, instead of agitating for Mandirs, would do weel to run a massive campaign for this. Go all out with a poster campaign and an ad campaign. Give the role models of famous Indian women like Indira Gandhi, Kiran Bedi, Kalpana Chawla, Sania Mirza, Medha Patkar to name a few who have attained success. Give the examples of women’s co operatives who have heralded major changes in the
country side. Celebrities associated with the state, could canvass in favour of the girl child. Punjab is famous for it’s women athletes and sportsmen, who could take the lead in speaking out against this heinous practice.Get the movie stars to pitch in for the girl child. This has to be a major
campaign and taken on a war footing. I dont know if right now any NGO’s or groups are attacking this problem, but if there are I am willing to pitch in with whatever help I could.
And finally let me say this **I AM THE PROUD FATHER OF TWO LOVELY SWEET DAUGHTERS. MY DAUGHTERS ARE NOT A BURDEN TO ME, THEY ARE GOD’S GIFT TO ME. DONT YOU DARE EVEN SUGGEST, THAT BECAUSE I DONT HAVE A SON, I HAVE TO WALK WITH HEAD BOWED. AND IF YOU THINK THAT BECAUSE I AM A GIRL’S FATHER, I CAN BE BULLIED AROUND, YOU ARE ASKING FOR MAJOR TROUBLE.