A well educated, nurtured girl is likely to be a big asset to the family, society and nation. Any discrimination against her is likely to cost too much in long run.
In my early teens in 1960s, a typical scene of Republic Day parade in Delhi’s India Gate lawns ever perplexed me. As the group of young girls jingling the drums passed, there was sudden outburst of macabre shriek & excitement among people on either side. With nonage over, when I discovered the reason of thrill I could not compromise with the sordid and sick psyche of men folk about sex!
Not a day passes when the newspaper does not report cases of rape, molestation, trafficking or some other form of girl child abuse; in some instances the girl victim is just few years old. To cite few cases of the month: a scrap vendor was sentenced by a court in Gujarat to three years in imprisonment for molesting a minor girl after being booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act, and Indian Penal Code sections 354A and 363. In Kerala, after the death of a sexually abused 14-year old, her relatives staged protest outside the child welfare committee office in Kakkanad, Kochi, as the victim was under the care of a childcare facility in Kochi. It is not psychiatric disorder alone. Behind such large scale heinous acts is primarily the deeply rooted sexual frustration and the apathy of the onlookers.
Discrimination against girl child stems from the ages-old distorted perceptions in favour of male child in many Indian communities. Whether in providing education, comforts, health or recreational facilities, we reflexively prefer boys. It is taken for granted that boys only, as true successor can, and shall tend the parents in old age though the current boyish behaviour trends indicate otherwise. In contemporary society when many sons treat the ancestral property and leftover assets & cash as their natural right and in the process, lose productive lifestyle besides turning apathetic to the concerns of the ageing, ailing parents. On the other hand, daughters know that they have to quit the paternal home one day, and build position in the new home, so they work hard. Increasingly, they are known to take due care of the aged parents.
Admittedly, a female is an eternal symbol of productivity and prosperity; she is Nature’s agency to perpetuate the existence of life on earth, something several ‘eat, drink and be merry’ or ‘damn care for marriage’ type youngsters have to understand before it is too late.
Girls are groomed to remain satisfied with pariah status accorded to them in foods, clothing and deprived of host of comforts. They are indoctrinated to believe that later eventually they have to don family responsibilities including nurturing the children and serve as correctional agency to mend their husbands. It is against this stereotype that women activists have taken up cudgels, like through such messages, “Women, you are not rehabilitation centre for badly raised men. It is not your job to fix him, change him, parent him or raise him. You want a partner, not a project”.
A major initiative of government of India to spread awareness among people about inequalities girls face in our society has been the celebration of National Girl Child Day on 24 January annually by the ministry of women and child development (MWCD) since 2008. Girls fare poorly as against boys along all development parameters. While male literacy stands at 82 per cent, among females it is 64 per cent. As for health, most girls and women commonly suffer from malnutrition, anaemia, and vitamin A deficiency. Child marriages mostly involve underage girls; India is home to one-third of all child brides in the world. Legal protection to women remains inadequate; incidences of crimes against women, foeticide, acid throwing, honour killings, rape, forced prostitution, trafficking go on irrespective of the hue of governance. The much applauded POSCO has had limited impact on mitigating the injustice against girls. Among POSCO crimes, Maharashtra tops the list with 8503 cases, followed by Uttar Pradesh 6978, Madhya Pradesh 5348 cases, as per latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report.
After the POSCO, the flagship Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) scheme launched by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi on 22 January 2015 made significant dent to address the issue of declining child sex ratio (CSR) and related issues of women empowerment over a life-cycle continuum. This national initiative is a tri-ministerial endeavour of Ministries of Women & Child Development, Health & Family Welfare and Human Resource Development.
So pathetic that “around one adult in every three has experienced abuse as a child” as one study concluded. There is enormous evidence that child abuse and neglect is associated with an increased possibility that as adult they will be at higher risk of suicide. No society or nation can grow without active participation of women, as a Theresa J. Whitmarsh said, “If you exclude 50 per cent of the talent pool, it’s no wonder you find yourself in a war for talent”. Even otherwise, in Hindu culture, birth of a girl is taken as advent of Lakshmi in home.
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Published in edit page of daily Odisa Post dt. 24 January 2021. Link: Link: http://odishapostepaper.com/m/117373/600c7891a0991
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