AWARENESS CAMPAIGN AGAINST SEX DETERMINATION

AWARENESS CAMPAIGN AGAINST SEX DETERMINATION 17/11/2011
ODISHA UPDATE:

Today we are in 21st century, but we still want boy in our home. Nowadays a girl child is being killed before birth. In this brutal crime, everyone is a co accused. We cannot give anybody a clean cheat. Interestingly, according to a study by the Harvard School of Public Health in the US; the sex proportion unevenness is highest amongst the well-off and the well-informed people. This is irony of fact that, in India; male-female percentage increases with the echelon of learning. According to the latest survey; the per cent of a boy is higher than a girl and it is about 25 per cent.

In Sambalpur district of Odisha the district legal authority has started an awareness campaign against sex determination and prohibition laid in the PC and PNDT (Pre Conception and Pre Natal diagnostic technique) act. The convener of the programme and secretary of the district legal service authority Mr. Pranab Routray expressed his deep concern and views over the sex ratio in the state. According to him Odisha is heading to a dangerous trend which needs to be curbed.

ORISSA IS heading towards a situation where the number of females is declining vis a vis males. After Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana, Orissa is facing the same crisis. However, the state government does not agree with the fact that female foeticide still prevails in the state. According to Mr Routray , “The determination of the foetus is illegal and if any person seeks help for sex selection, he/she can face imprisonment of three years and has to pay a fine of Rs 50,000. This has remained on paper.” He further added that unless people were aware, one cannot stop this practice through law.

Mr Routray provided a valuable information that the sex ratio in Sambalpur district was 959 females per thousand males in 2010 as compared and which has come down to a level to 931 per one thousand male in 2011. At the state level, while the sex ratio for all the age groups of population is 972 (2001 Census), it comes down to 950 in the 0-6 years age group of population. At the district level, the situation again has worsened in case of developed coastal districts such as Nayagarh, Kendrapara, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Puri, Khurda, Ganjam. This is may be because the people have better access to sex determination tests.

Sex determination is a cognizable offence , where both the parents and doctor can be punished with a maximum fine up to Rs 1 Lakh.He further stated that the legal cell had started a month long awareness campaign against the sex determination and spreading awareness on saving the girl child in different schools thereby involving school children and teachers.

Female foeticide is an issue that demands serious thinking and action from many quarters of society. It is true that the mentality of equating women with money is at its root, but the partial treatment given to the girl even by mothers and mothers-in-laws, their demand for male child, the gender discrimination in public sphere as well as the unethical behaviour. Sometimes, it is the mothers themselves who opt for it as they do not want their unborn babies to suffer what they underwent as daughters.

Women should also be socialized from early childhood to consider themselves as equal to men. They should be encouraged to assume all those responsibilities, which are normally considered to be belonging to the male domain. This would be a positive influence on the coming generations as today’s girl child would be tomorrow’s mother as well as mother in-law.

It is clear that female foeticide is not merely from transgression of ethics but grave phenomena whose social repercussion is equally alarming. Besides, the ethical behavior by medical fraternity and concrete legal measures equally call for change in the mindset of society because there lays its final solution.

SIDDHARTHA SHANKAR MISHRA,
BUREAU CHIEF,
THESE DAYS,
ORISSA.