"Get rid of girl" process starts right from the day first signs of pregnancy begin to show. Pregnancy test, Sex determination (though illegal in Republic of India), abortion. All this costs meagre 250 rupees!!!!!!! Less than what you would spend on a Pizza in Pizza Hut or on sub in a subway. Can you believe that? If somebody is too busy or too poor or too lazy to get the child aborted, they wait in a hope of their kishna. If instead its a Radha, the chances of not seeing next day's light are pretty high (NGOs say that we have lost 80 lakh such radhas in last 10-15 years).
If girl is born in mother's home or if father's parents are TOO kind hearted, they let her live but cruelities don't end here. Everybody in the locality comes to pay their condolences for the misfortune and each one will tell their share of mantras "Koshish karte raho, bhagwaan ke ghar der hai andher nahi" "mere ko na subah sapna aaya, agli baar tere ghar ladka hi hoga" "Paas vale gaon mein ek naye sadhu maharaj aaye hai, unki kripa se mere ghar ladka hua, tu unke vaha jake kyon nahi try karti?" All advices are given in "good" faith so that unlucky ones can get rid of their curse. Some listen to these and end up with women cricket team and a male umpire but most go for options of "test and abort" instead of "trial and error".
If at all a girl manages to fall through the net, she is subjected to unsaid tortures just because her father came out with a X chromosome instead of Y. She is supposed to share the burden of her mother's daily chores while her father & mother are busy trying to build her "budape ka sahara" (son!!!!!!) She will be abused, beaten, made to work like donkey without food.
Such girls will continue suffering all these brutalities till they die or till they get herslef a Bahu who has also managed to bring a daugter in this world and this vicious cycle continues. But I am writing this blog to highlight the plight of unborn girls.
I have heard or rather read that all such villages which may not even have roads, doctors, schools etc do have access to mobile abortion clinics who come into villages with loud-speakers announcing to help people get rid of their burdens at low prices. If at all these hawkers dont come around selling these remedies, people take next bus to nearest town to their family abortionists. These jhola chhap docs are also no less evil. Quite a few times, they abort boys to earn abortion money. Easy money it is, they say. "Laser se kato aur fir injection de ke bahar nikalo aur fenk do" thats it. Punjab Police raided one such clinic after locals complained after too many feotuses were found in the pond near to that clinic.
I dont want to portray any gory pictures here but its truth that people dont want daughters anymore. As our society has grown, daughters have become a even bigger bane. Such people who have been hell bent on making female species extinct, do realize what all this can lead up to but no body wants to take the "burden". "Arre ladki kisi aur ke ghar pe ho jaye to theek hai, apne yaha ladka hi chahiye", they say. Things have become so bad that grooms in Haryana can not find suitable brides for themselves and have to go as far as kerala to find one. I dont think time is too far when the picture portrayed in a movie matribhumi will come true. This movie showed a nation without women (a must watch if you haven't.) It gives me jitters to think of such times. Imagine if there are no women left in their lives, men will become beasts (if they already are not). There will be no respect for values, family, ethics in life. One doesnt have to go too far to see an example of such men. Talibaans are one such tribe who by design or by accident never got a chance to interact with any lady in their life (no mother, sister, wife, friend etc) and see what a disaster they have become when it comes to running a society.
Being from Punjab, I have seen the kind of barbs a mother has to face for bearing a girl child and while I was going through the articles on IBNLIVE, I was getting angry at police not doing anything, renuka chaudhary (minister for women empowerment) just blabbering and sad that we are just watching. Worse part was the end of one of these articles, there were three ads by google which were trying to sell sex determination and abortion kits. I know its because of stupid google ad spiders and not a fault of ibnlive but it was really ironic and puts things in right perspective where we know what is wrong but still we knowingly/unknowingly keep on encouraging such practices (not discouraging somebody is also a equal crime) I think, its time, all of stand up against such rotten beliefs and stop our society from going down the gutter. As a state, punjab and haryana do not have to look too far for an example. Himachal has shown how investing into social system can help eradicate all such malpractices. Its not that difficult. Lets resolve to say no to dowry first (root of all such issues)
I would hate to be in a place where mothers pray to god
"ab ke kiye jo data, aisa na kijo!
agle janam mohe Bitiya na Dijo!"
Ashish Sharma
