Page 21 - English Tehelka Issue 5 - March 15, 2018

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in India. It is believed that after sex determination where a girl is born. This is suggestive of parents
tests and sex-selective abortions were made illegal employing ‘stopping rules’ — having children till a
in India in 1994, the sex ratio at birth (SRB) in the son is born and stopping thereafter,” it said. This fact
country began to stabilise. However, while the SRB pointed out in the Economic Survey 2018 is evident
in 1970 was 1060 males per 1000 females, in 2014 it all around us — don’t we often see in various cul-
rose to 1108 males per 1000 females. tures across our diverse country that a large num-
This is despite the fact that “… biology seems on ber of couples, from different socio-economic back-
the whole to favour women. Considerable research grounds, often have three or more children when
has shown that if men and women receive simi- the first two or three offspring are girls. In these
lar nutritional and medical attention and general cases, the youngest child is mostly a boy who is of-
health care, women tend to live noticeably longer ten the only male child. On the other had it can also
than men. Women seem to be, on the whole, more be noticed in multiple cases that families where the
resistant to disease and in general hardier than first one or two children are male choose not to go
men, an advantage they enjoy not only after they ahead and have a third child to have a daughter.
are forty years old but also at the beginning of life, The result is that these “unwanted” girl chil -
especially during the months immediately follow- dren live lives of direct or indirect abhorrence and
ing birth, and even in the womb. When given the neglect as a result of which they grow up to be
same care as males, females tend to have better unhealthy, often less educated and also filled with
survival rates than males”, quoting from Sen’s sexist notions passed on to them by their parents
above-mentioned essay. which they are likely to further pass on to their off-
Add to this the latest Economic Survey report spring in future. When such “unwanted” girls grow
released in January 2018 that discusses the concept up in large families, their parents often have less
of ‘son meta-preference’ among Indian parents resources to spend per child. As a consequence, the
who go out of their way to keep producing children parents due to their preference for their male child/
till a desired number of sons is attained. According children are more likely to spend their limited re-
to the Survey report, India at present has as many sources on the medical, educational and nutritional
as 21 million “unwanted” girls in the age group of expenses of their son(s) rather than daughters.
0-25 years because their parents kept producing
children, or undesired daughters, in the hope of a TradiTions To Blame
male child.
The Survey, after analysing the sex ratio of the For centuries, Indians across cultures have been
last child (SRLC) born to couples, found that the conservative and tradition-bound. The distinct
SRLC is skewed in favour of males and is biased roles of men and women within families and socie-
against females. “Families where a son is born are ties have been clearly defined and strictly adhered sons carry forward the family lineage and look after
more likely to stop having children than families to since time immemorial. Invasion of men into the their parents in old age while daughters are to be
well-defined roles of women and vice-versa are given away in marriage is a thought-process that
customarily disapproved. Even as we, as a coun- has been passed on to us across multiple genera- in our country, being a
there is a ‘son try, have made substantial progress in terms of tions and is a major reason why people, including woman automatically
young couples, desire male children. This holds true
education, economics and technology, deep-rooted
antiquated traditions have continued to be fol-
even in urban pockets where the concept of nuclear
meta-preference’ lowed in the name of maintaining our inherent val- families is on the rise. implies being inferior
ue systems and adhering to various religions that
The pervasive custom of giving dowry to the
among indian parents usually assign secondary positions to women. The groom’s family during a daughter’s wedding is to men. even in case of
another significant factor that discourages people
intervention of contemporary pragmatism, thanks
who go out of their to globalisation, that advocates equality of all from giving birth to girls. Rather than giving out children and babies,
especially of the genders has led to a battle of sorts
their hard-earned money to someone else’s fam-
way to keep producing between such modern values and dogmatic, ily, it is preferable to keep it within the household being a girl comes
by passing it on to the son. The regressive dowry
farcical traditions.
Women’s lives have since antiquity been con-
children till a desired trolled in the name of religion, culture and tradi- system has been flourishing even among people with the tag of being
from educated and economically sound back-
drops. In fact, it can be said that in several cases the
tions. Many obsolete ‘rules’ of society are considered
number of sons is irrevocable and are carried out even in twenty-first more economically comfortable a bride’s family secondary to boys
century India irrespective of the levels of educa-
is, the more dowry they are expected to give to the
attained tion attained or financial comforts acquired by groom’s family. Giving of less dowry or refusing to
give it is often socially embarrassing.
both men and women. For instance, the belief that
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