aNalysis

Elite Facilitate the Skewed Sex Ratio in India
Jyotika J. Thukral

A play in progress against the killing of female children
A play in progress against the killing of female children

THERE is confusion in the house of God.  Some religions preached "God resides where women are revered" and where host of Hindu goddesses; Lakshmi, Durga and Saraswati are all worshipped. But the Atharvaveda declared ages back, “The birth of a daughter, grant it elsewhere, here grant a son”. Male child is an asset and female child a burden for who parents have to arrange dowry, gifts and protection for her entire life and her progeny too. The scriptures and social situations determine Indian attitude towards female children who are subjected to multifarious travails. , yet the female baby is frequently killed in the womb.

Each hilltop may be adorned with a goddess, yet the female foeticide continues unabated. Intriguingly, it’s prevalent more among the elite that spends millions for salvation in the name of these very goddesses and don’t spare even a thought before eliminating their unborn daughters through sex-selective abortions. The educated who declare themselves progressive from the housetops lead the pack of these ‘killers of the unborn daughters’ and take this act as perfectly non-violent.

Pay Rs 500 now and save Rs 50,000 later seems to be the catch line. While dowry is one of the major concerns leading to rise in female infanticide and female foeticide, other causes responsible for the continuous decline in the sex ratio include poverty, illiteracy, culture and preference for male child. Mainly because of being recognised in his patriarchal role of a relevant source of financial dependence, provider of the family lineage and protector of the family and its status.

While the practice of female foeticide and infanticide is not new in India, technology, the growing availability of pre-natal screening techniques has brought a new dimension to the problem. There is a sudden surge in the number of female foetuses being aborted that too despite the authorities’ action against ‘errant’ doctors illegally providing sex detection tests.

As per the 2001 Census, the sex ratio in the 0-5 age group has slid from 945 girls per 1,000 boys in the 1991 Census to 927 at present, lowest in the world.  It is an alarming situation in Punjab and Haryana despite the prosperity and high per capita income levels, the juvenile sex ratio has been declining with each successive Census. Social scientists and women's organisations besides demographers have been expressing concern over India's declining sex ratio. This Census revealed that it was not the BIMARU States-Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh- that have sharp declines in sex ratio but some of the more prosperous states. The inter-State variations were pronounced. The magnitude of the decline - 82 points in Punjab, 59 in Haryana, 54 in Himachal Pradesh, 50 in Gujarat, 42 in Uttaranchal and 29 in Maharashtra - was higher than the 1991 census.

In a way, the horrifying reel life story that director Manish Jha depicted in the futuristic film ‘Matrubhoomi: A Nation without Women’ seems to be coming to real life. The movie depicts an era without women with the male female sex ration being 100:1.

Well in a male dominated society like ours where women are looked down upon, what can one expect? The cultural preference for a male child has skewed sex ratios further. So much so that young men on the threshold of getting married have no brides to marry. 23 million males are not likely to find partners by 2011. Studies show that an over whelming majority including women up to 81 per cent prefer the male child. 

The fact that the decline in sex ratio is higher in the developed states either because of ready accessibility or other socio-economic factors is a serious cause of concern.

Data points out that the decreasing sex ratio is worse in educated, elite and economically well-off section of the society where sex selection technology is easily available. Sample this. As per the 2001 census, all nine districts in Delhi have a child sex ratio of less than 900 per 1,000 boys, with an exception of central Delhi where the ratio is 902 per 1,000 boys. What is noteworthy here is that central Delhi is also called Old Delhi, with little education or basic civic infrastructure. In comparison, the most elite and prosperous districts - south and south-west - have a sex ratio of 886 and 845 respectively.

Although largely an urban phenomenon, it is now spreading to the rural areas as well. Probably due to the spiraling effect which in turn points to a trend where thanks to new easy available technology of sex determination, abortion of female foetuses is on the rise?

While Punjab recorded a ratio below 800 girls to 1000 boys, Haryana, an economically advanced state is socially backward with the worst sex ratio of 865:1000 owing mainly to a long history of infanticide and more recently, sex selective abortions. In some districts it is as low as 756:1000.  

Activists and experts attribute it to female foeticide which is being carried out illegally. The doctors escape by loopholes in the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Test Act that bans sex determination of foetus, but allows it in certain conditions. Which makes it nearly impossible to prove that the test was conducted in order to determine the sex of the foetus and not otherwise, as clinics do several tests on pregnant women for various reasons.

Concerned by this shameful situation, Punjab’s health secretary, Darbara Singh Guru, declared that the state government is resorting to informers and decoy patients to curb female foeticide. “We shall reward those who help the government in identifying those indulging in foeticide. Anyone giving a clue about female foeticide would be rewarded Rs 5,000. The individual's name and address would be kept secret,” he announced. How this works on the ground could be anyone’s guess, but the government is becoming aware is a positive sign.

Historically, gender violence is deeply entrenched in almost all cultures, although its forms may vary.  Also, female infanticide and foeticide are not unique to India - they are prevalent almost globally. Studies reveal that infanticide and foeticide were prevalent among Arabian tribes, the Yanomani Indians of Brazil and in ancient Rome. Female infanticide was quite common in pre-communist China, though it has now been replaced by foeticide. Among the South Asian diaspora in Britain, USA and Canada, abortion of female foetuses has been prevalent for over 15 years. Among the immigrant Punjabi community in Canada, occasional cases of female infanticide are reported every year.

The 21st century which is considered the hallmark of civilization, the age of globalization but the continuing misery of the female generation forces one to think otherwise as to why are life-enhancing mechanisms leading to life-depriving outcomes?

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Power from the Barrel of the Gun
Gobind Thukral

“A peal of spring thunder has crashed over the land of India.”
Editorial, in People’s Daily July 5, 1967.

ON the night of November 15, over 500 Naxalites in seven to eight groups attacked the Jehanabad high security prison, freed  341 of their supporters including their leader Ajay Kanu, gunned down Ranvir Sena leader Bade Ranvir Sharma and abduct 20 of his men. Maoists also kill  their   eight   high caste opponents and lose two of their cadres as three jail officials fall to their bullets. Two senior Ranvir Sena activists were found murdered by the Naxalites. Later, this town, 40 kilometers away from Patna, capital of India’s Bihar witnessed a revolt by the police.

 This is how the poor in India now fight their battles. Caste conflicts strangely mix and become class war in India. It is a dramatic reminder of  empty bellies in rural India.  It is a war  for land, power and some social justice that makes up the creed of the left wing guerillas.

It was one of the key actions “to free their comrades from the clutches of exploitative state” as Naxalites who left posters explaining reasons behind the attack. Naxalites virtually run parallel government in 150 of the 543 districts of India .

Earlier on February 6, 2004, the Naxalites what the police termed the biggest ever attack of its kind in the movement, they looted the District Armoury in Koraput, Orissa, the entire weaponry — 500 rifles and ammunition. It was a scrupulously planned and executed operation that meant snapping telephone and power lines and jamming roads leading to Koraput town to prevent security reinforcements. They had laid siege to Koraput, brought it to a complete halt and held the town, including the district headquarters complex, under their tight grip for several hours. Same happened in Jehanabad.

For the Communist guerillas, the area of operation is broadly the very heartland of India, particularly the rural and Adivasi areas, the contiguous forests in these regions. There are several groups, but command is getting more focussed and central. They are active from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra, the Telengana region of Andhra to western Orissa.  People's War Group is active in Andhra Pradesh, western Orissa and eastern Maharashtra while the Maoist Communist Centre is active in Bihar, Jharkhand and northern Chhattisgarh. They attack at will police stations, political leaders and other ‘class enemies’ and fight the security forces in pitched encounters.  They suffer casualties as do the security forces, yet neither are they down in morale, nor they lack cadres. Journalists, who dared to travel to their forest hideouts, speak about their fierce methods, but humane approach with locals where they have overtaken the state.  A cartoon in a leading Indian newspaper summed up the situation that the American forces could really learn more from joint exercises with the Naxalites than with the Indian army.

The government in July this year admitted in the Lok Sabha, that 251 persons and 101 Naxalites were killed in the first six months of 2005 alone in 10 states. Government estimated that a total of 566 lives were lost in Naxalite-related violence in 2004. If the peace process was not on in Andhra Pradesh for good part of 2004, the losses would have been higher. In 2003 the number of fatalities was at 515 and a year earlier it was 482.  But these figures do not reveal the bigger picture about the political clout and control of the Naxalites who liaison with their counterparts in Nepal, Bangle Desh and Sri Lanka. Their manifesto speaks of liberating the entire south Asia.

The Naxalites claim to represent the most oppressed people in India, those who have been left untouched by development and where the electoral process has meant voting the big landlords and money lenders. These areas symbolise the stark failure of the Indian state to transform unequal social and economic relations. Majority of the people live at least two centuries back, in the tight clutches of the big landowners, money lenders and state officials that act as their henchmen. Economically exploited, deprived of their traditional forest rights and sources of livelihood and their womenfolk  constantly exploited sexually and brutalised consistently, the poor have little stake in the Indian state. Those non government organisations that have dared to go into these areas have reported the worst brutalities that any state could heap upon the people.  Invariably, the oppressed are the Adivasis, Dalits, and the poorest of the poor, who work as landless labourers for a pittance, which too is often denied.

While Naxalites claim to follow Chinese helmsman Moa Zedong and other revolutionaries and they term the mainstream Indian communist parties as the agents of the bourgeoisie and are committed to charter a revolutionary pat state, the proletarian dictatorship. They methods some time speak of their immediate power hunger and exploitation.  Criticism against them is that despite their ideology, they have over the years become just another terrorist outfit. In fact, the line between political violence and violence perpetrated for personal gains and to frighten people into submission is always thin.   

Former Army Chief, Gen Shankar Roy Chowdhury who is now a Member of Parliament found the government ignoring the threat when he said, “The Naxalite movement is the main threat which is menacing the state today. It is more dangerous than the situation in Jammu and Kashmir or the situation in the North-East. You won’t be able to go from Delhi to Kolkatta or from Mumbai to Chennai if this movement ever catches on.”

The state seems to busy in elevating the rich, serving the exploiting classes and seeking solutions in the neo liberal ideologies of market. Land reforms, equitable social and economic justice and forest rights of the Adivasis are not considered as essential inputs to fight poverty and exploitation. These issues are mentioned only in documents and not in practice. At best the response of the Indian state is to held a few meetings, provide more security forces and make some declarations.

The earliest manifestation of the armed movement to capture the state power was the Telengana Struggle in July 1948, a century after the Paris Communes were first set up, coining the word Communist.  Not surprisingly, the ideology of the Indian revolution remains strong although the two major parties and some ex Naxalites are committed to parliamentary path to capture power.

On May 25, 1967, in Naxalbari village in Darjeeling district, northern West Bengal, local goons attacked a tribal who had been given land by the courts under the tenancy laws. In retaliation, the tribals attacked landlords and claimed the land. From this 'Naxalbari Uprising' came the word Naxalite. 

While from 1965 to 1972, the Naxalite movement remained popular and attracted brilliant students, including from the famed IITs, dropping out of college to join the struggle for the rights of the tribals and landless labourers.  It was declared dead till it resurfaced in Kerala, Andhra and Maharashtra and reached its present proportions.

This peal of a thunder as Chinese communist party organ described it in 1967 has a come a long way.  Political or moral support from china has nearly withered in a changed world scenario, but poverty and inequality keeps pushing people to this movement.

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