TO THE WOMEN OF INDIA- A WAKE UP CALL

                                                           By

                                                      Pavan Nair

 The country whose male population is unkind, should not have daughters.   

                             Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bengali Reformist 1854. 

August 10, 1971 was a historic day in more sense than one. A path breaking legislation was enacted by Parliament called the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act. For the first time a woman could choose if she wanted to continue with a pregnancy. No more unwanted babies or going to quacks which resulted in horrible and painful post natal trauma. It was also for the first time anywhere, that the failure of contraception was legally accepted as a valid reason for termination of a pregnancy irrespective of the fact that the woman was undergoing her first or subsequent pregnancy or whether or not she had any surviving children. The consent of the woman was required in writing and that was it. Women activists hailed this as a great step forward in empowering their kind. That the act was passed to also control the burgeoning population is accepted but this very section of the Act was to subsequently cause devastation of such magnitude that the Child Sex Ratio(CSR) in the age group of 0-6 dropped sharply from 962 females per 1000 males in 1981 to 927 in 2001, that is a drop of 35 points compared with a drop of 14 points for the period from 61-81 which itself was a cause of concern. The rate of decline had accelerated by 150%. Female foetuses were being selectively aborted in very large numbers on grounds of failure of contraception. Ultrasony had arrived. Sex could be determined at 12 weeks and a simple tick or a signature in blue or black ink could mean a death sentence. The male child syndrome which had always been prevalent was now a realizable, low cost option. There was no need to undergo the entire term of pregnancy as also the process of childbirth before getting to know whether it was a girl or a boy. Very convenient, very clean, very cheap. It was like a win win situation for all; the family, the clinic, the doctor and the woman who for the first time by herself or coerced by her family could actually opt for the sex of the child. That the male child was invariably chosen is a different story.

     The Census of India is a sensitive document. It records demographic data for a decade, region wise and compares it with previous data. It is also very accurate. One page which covers the CSR is particularly damning. It reveals that a deadly arc spanning counter clockwise from  Himachal in the North to Maharashtra in the West has become a vast killing field. This geographically contiguous area also includes the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat. UP and MP also cling to this area but to a lesser extent. One fact which sticks out like a welcome sore thumb is that every state of the North East including Assam is well above the National average and the average of every other state including Andhra(surprise?)which is the highest at 964 inspite of having a literacy rate just above Bihar, UP and Rajasthan.. The high ratios in the North East which is the most underdeveloped area in the country can be attributed to the tribal structure of society and the influence of Christianity. Tribal societies know how to look after themselves.

The second fact is that just as there is an arc in the Northern and Western part of the country, it has a polar opposite which extends from the South towards the East in which the drop in the CSR is well below the national average. This arc constitutes all the Southern states as well as Orissa, West Bengal and Bihar(surprise again?). Also please note that the major part of the killing field is the so called developed and industrialized belt where the per capita income as well as the literacy rate(except for Rajasthan and UP) is well above the national average.  

The only state where there has been a positive growth in the CSR is Kerala, no surprises here, since the structure of society is matrilineal. The ratio has increased in the last decade by 5 points to 963. It is also interesting to note that the overall sex ratio in Kerala is 1058 females per thousand males which is much higher than the world average of 990 and the India average of 933. Take a bow all the Southern states, your CSR is well above the national average but a special mention of West Bengal which has the lowest drop of a mere 4 points in this decade next only to Kerala’s gain of 5 points; whereas Punjab dropped 82 points, Haryana 59 points, Gujarat 50 points and  Maharashtra 29 points in the same period. West Bengal is the only state where the overall sex ratio has steadily risen over the last 40 years. Durga is alive and kicking in the form of the unborn girl child. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Gurudev Tagore, Jyoti Basu, I salute you. But please do not think that the South is free of this practice. Salem in Tamil Nadu is amongst the fifty worst districts. The worst being Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab with a mere 754 females for a thousand males. The Collector of Salem has instituted a unique plan to accept female infants as a donation.  

Translated into numbers, it is estimated that more than 2 million abortions of female foetuses were carried out in the last 10 years and nearly the same number in the previous 10 years. Translated into sociological impact this would mean an increase in the incidence of sexual crimes against women and children as also increased hostility between males leading to breakdowns in families and disorder in day to day life. And we are worried about temples and mosques and the environment! Someone please tell me that I am wrong. 

Unfortunately the PNDT(Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique) Act which was enacted in 1994 to prevent pre natal sex determination is a useless piece of legislation which cannot be implemented. No one except a few NGO’s are really interested. Provisions do exist where the person determining sex pre natally as well as the woman who aborts after sex determination can be punished. There has been no conviction to date. Governments have better things to do than checking records of clinics, in any case no one would record that he or she had conveyed the sex of the child. There are other ways of doing it like an innocuous tick or a cross somewhere on the report. Recently the Supreme Court issued directions that all ultrasound clinics be made to file reports of cases recorded. And what of the cases which they do not record or are recorded as health or tumour checks?  It is like asking people to eat iodine pills when a nuclear holocaust is imminent. 

One would think that cities with a much higher literacy rate would have a better record. Wrong again.

The worst cities lie within the arc of death, these are, Patiala, Kurukshetra, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Mumbai and Pune to name a few. The drop in the CSR in the last decade varies from 101 points in Patiala to 56 points in Mumbai. Compare this with the national drop of 18 points in the same period and then draw your conclusions. Please also study the table at the end of this article which has the statewise details. I have a hypothesis. The rate of decline of the CSR is directly proportional to the rate of increase in the crime rate against women and children. Unfortunately no credible data is available to verify this as most crimes specially child sexual abuse and molestation are never reported. Read Pinki Virani’s book. The rate of crimes reported depends on the credibility of the Police so if you look at available data you will find that the reported rate in South India is much higher than in the North which is very far from the truth.  

Where are we headed? How have we let ourselves reach this stage? The persons I have interacted with on this issue tell me that we must educate the people. How long will that take and what state will we be in by the time the education takes effect? We have seen the little or no impact of literacy rates in states like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra which are well above the national literacy rate. I would like to revert to the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act. We need to re examine the applicability of the Act in the area of contraceptive failure. It is worth reproducing the operative section of the Act in its entirety. I do so below.

WHEN PREGNANCIES MAY BE TERMINATED BY REGISTERED MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS

3. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Indian Penal Code, a registered medical practitioner shall not be guilty of any offence under that code or under any other law for the time being in force, if any pregnancy is terminated by him in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

   (2) Subject to the provisions of Sub Section (4), a pregnancy may be terminated by a registered medical practitioner, :-

(a) where the length of the pregnancy does not exceed twelve weeks, if such medical practitioner is,   or

(b) where the length of the pregnancy exceeds twelve weeks but does not exceed twenty weeks, if not less than two registered medical practitioners are

of the opinion, formed in good faith, that--

(i)               the continuance of the pregnancy would involve a risk to the life of the pregnant woman or of grave injury to her physical or mental health; or

                    (ii)       there is substantial risk that if the child were born, it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped.

Explanation I – Where any pregnancy is alleged by the pregnant woman to have been caused by rape, the anguish caused by such pregnancy shall be presumed to constitute a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman.

Explanation II – Where any pregnancy occurs as a result of failure of any device or method used by any married woman or her husband for the purpose of limiting the number of children, the anguish caused by such unwanted pregnancy may be presumed to constitute a grave injury to the mental health of the pregnant woman.

(3) In determining whether the continuance of a pregnancy would involve such risk of injury to the health as is mentioned in sub-section (2), account may be taken of the pregnant woman’s actual or reasonable foreseeable environment.

(4) (a)  No pregnancy of a woman, who has not attained the age of eighteen years, or, who, having attained the age of eighteen years is a lunatic, shall be terminated except with the consent in writing of her guardian.

        (b)Save as otherwise provided in Clause (a), no pregnancy shall be terminated   except with the consent of the pregnant woman.

The Act continues hereafter with regard to the place where the pregnancy may be terminated. My problem is with Explanation II. If a pregnancy is to be terminated as a result of the failure of contraception, then would it not be appropriate to have two surviving children before the termination takes place? We are talking of married couples in their reproductive years. Why terminate a pregnancy unless the couple have a full family? It is this catch in the Act which was exploited by the medical profession of which women form a large part, but then they were only fulfilling a demand and a perfectly legal demand. Please note that the language of Explanation II states that failure of contraception ‘may be presumed to constitute’ and not ‘shall be presumed to constitute’. This implies that any doctor could refuse termination unless the pregnancy was life threatening. This was not done as the statistics have quite amply revealed. Never mind the morality of killing off female foetuses, after all they were not fully formed. A small modification to this act would resolve the issue once and for all. At the end of Explanation II delete full stop and add comma followed by ‘ provided  proof is furnished that two surviving natural or legally adopted children are a part of the pregnant woman’s family.’  This clause would only then be complete. All other clauses would remain applicable. What proof is to be furnished can be specified in the rules which are enacted to implement the procedural aspects of the Act. Please also note that the consent of the woman specified in Clause 4(b) above can be obtained by various means and is not good enough protection. This simple modification of Explanation II will have a far reaching effect in arresting this decimation of our nation. Demographically speaking this is not foeticide but matricide, for each lost foetus would have been mother to the future generation. Since termination will be permitted only after two children, there will be no need to get the sex of the child determined. Yes, female infanticide may still continue but it has always been there. At least this mass murder will be stopped in its tracks.

Regrettably, the women of this country have participated in this genocide by submitting to become receptacles for producing males. You can make a difference now. You are the one who is affected. If ever - there was a need for a movement by and for women – it is now. It is time to take your Kali form, even if you are Muslim or Sikh or Christian or Parsee or Buddhist or Jain or anything else. For You are the Mother. Arise Mother, thy soil has been desecrated by the blood of thy daughters. From Punjab, Sindh, Gujarat, Maratha, it has flowed into Yamuna, Ganga. Awake Mother before it is too late.

TABLE SHOWING MAJOR STATES ARRANGED IN ASCENDING OF CHILD SEX RATIO(CSR) FOR 2001 IN THE AGE GROUP FROM 0-6 YEARS(FEMALES PER THOUSAND MALES) AND OVERALL LITERACY RATE

  STATE             CSR 81   CSR 91  CSR 2001  DROP 91-01  SEX RATIO   LITERACY                                            1. India                  962         945           927               18                 933              65.38%

2. Punjab              908                 875           793               82                 874              69.95%

3. Haryana            902          879           820              59                 861              68.59%

Delhi                     926          915          865              50                  821              81.82% [Union Territory]

4. Gujarat             947            928          878             50                921                69.97%

5. Rajasthan         954            916           909               7               922                61.03%

6. U.P                  935             928           916            12                898                57.36%

7. Maharashtra    956             946           917            29                922                 77.27%

8. M.P                 978              952          929            23                920                 64.11%

9. Bihar               981             959            938           21                 921                47.53%

10. Tamil Nadu   967             948            939             9                986                73.47%

11. Karnataka      975             960            949           11                964                67.04%

12. Orissa            995             967            950           17                972                 63.61%

13. W.Bengal       981            967            963              4                934                 69.22%

14. Kerala            970             958            963          (- 5)             1058                 90.92%

15.  A.P               992              974            964            10               978                61.11%