Bhubaneswar, June 9: A string of cases of newborn female babies being abandoned and women giving birth to girls being tortured over the past few months ascertain the fact that the girl child is still unwanted for a large number of people in the state.
The latest incident took place in the capital last Monday when a mother of twin girls was apparently driven to suicide following alleged torture at the hands of her in-laws, who wanted a male child.
This was preceded by the case of a newborn girl being abandoned at Choudwar near Cuttack. The baby was found inside a roadside shanty in a bundle of rags with ants feasting on her. She was later shifted to a local orphanage. The previous day in the same city, a newborn was deserted at Sishu Bhavan by her parents, who had registered fake names with the hospital.
Girl children continue to battle societal bias in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, which boast of an egalitarian culture. Census 2011 had revealed a sharp decline in the child sex ratio of both cities, which set alarm bells ringing, but only momentarily.
“What’s worse is that the society continues to condone such cases. We appear to react only when the media plays up these issues or when they take place on a massive scale. But the most that we do is mourn collectively and then move on with our lives like everything is hunky dory,” said television personality Sulagna Routray, who is associated with various social campaigns.
During the last decade, the gender disparity has increased in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack with the number of girl children (0-6 years) declining to 910 and 913, respectively, in 2011 from their 2001 figures – 926 and 939 (against every 1,000 boys), respectively. The overall figure for Odisha has also come down to 934 in 2011 from 953 in 2001.
“The discrimination has increased with material prosperity, which is apparent from the increased adverse sex ratio in Census 2011. More districts in Odisha, especially those that are more prosperous, have reported lower proportion of girls,” said Bishnupada Sethi, director of census operations, adding that in stark contrast to rural areas, which have 939 girls per 1,000 males, urban areas cut a sorry figure at 909.
Terming it as a “distressing” trend, child welfare committee member Rini Mohanty said: “Gender bias has always existed and, sadly, I don’t see it being eliminated for many more years to come. At one point, we used to think education and empowerment of women would improve the scenario but nothing has changed. Worse, the bias is more acute among the literate sections of society.”
She said there has to be a sea change in the people’s mentality for the situation to improve. “We need to understand that there are certain roles that only women can perform and spaces that only women can fill. But people treat them like garbage and throw them away. The day isn’t far when we would witness a “missing girls” situation where men would not be able to find brides for themselves,” said Mohanty.
Drawing attention to the female foeticide rackets of 2007 in the capital’s posh Forest Park, former captain of the national women’s football team Shradhanjali Samantaray said: “How heartless would one have to be to kill an unborn child. It is a heinous crime. Leaving babies on the streets is equivalent to murder and people practicing this must be imprisoned for life or awarded capital punishment.”
Social activist Sruti Mohapatra said girls were often born unwanted, if they were born at all. “It is ironical that in a country where feminine power is worshiped, social evils like foeticide, dowry and desertion of girls are rampant. Even affluence does not give a girl child the freedom to get educated or have an opinion. Law alone cannot check this social malady, which is gradually assuming alarming proportions. It is a shame,” she said.
Odisha Women’s Development Corporation chairperson Lopamudra Baxipatra believes only education and sustained awareness campaigns could change the girl child-unfriendly atmosphere. “The existing laws must be strengthened and people guilty of crime against girls must not be let off easily. Such deeds must be treated as non-bailable offences. But more than punishment, people need to be educated and made aware about protecting the interests of the girl child,” Baxipatra said.
Officials of the directorate of family welfare said technology was being misused to distort the child sex ratio. “The skewed ratio not only indicates poor social health (of the state), but is also a barrier in attaining sustainable social development. The predominantly patriarchal and social set up based on the foundation that the family line runs through a male is the reason why people try to avoid having a girl child,” said an official.
