Daffarpur (Punjab), May 3
This small hamlet — situated about 25 km from the state Capital — has got strong representations from womenfolk; the sarpanch and two out of five panches are women. Still most of the couples here prefer to kill their girl child in the womb itself.
Surinder Kaur (not her real name) is one of them who recently aborted her female foetus when the doctors told her that she was carrying a girl. For the reasons well known; her family members wanted a boy. All in name of family planning
For killing her child, she paid Rs 500 for ultrasound and a government hospital took care of the rest. A petty sum as compared to what her family would have spent in terms of dowry to marry their daughter.
Surinder Kaur knows about all this too well. Her elders, her own parents, have told her all about it. And at times the grassroots workers who consider themselves as guardians of the villagers, also spread the same message to the local masses.
Meet Lajwanti, a local leader of the Shiromani Akali Dal’s Mahila Mandal who claims to be a social worker for the uplift of rural people.
She argues: “Who will pay the huge dowry if these girls are born? Will you or the government come forward?”
Ask her whether she would have come to this world had her parents thought the same, and she insensibly replies : “Yes”.
Daffarpur’s ex-sarpanch Raunak Singh, a kindly old man of about 75 years, is more sensible. He tries to cover up and says: “ It is difficult to marry girls who do not have brothers.” Yet he asserts that the number of girls in his village is much more as compared to other villages in the region. Bakshir Singh, a panch of the village, voices somewhat similar sentiments. “ Out of total 582 registered votes , at least 50 per cent are those of women.”
Interestingly, Maya Devi, the village sarpanch, has no opinion: “Let my husband come back from work,” is all she has to say.
However, Maneshwar Dhillon, an
advocate and also a panch from Daffarpur, agrees that with latest test facilities like ultrasound available in close proximity of this village, at Dera Bassi and Panchkula, gender gap could be becoming wider. “Moreover, women are illiterate. At times social workers themselves act as a nexus between doctors and people.”
Here, it is important to mention that Daffarpur is just an example of what is happening all over the richest state of India — Punjab.
The figures of the Census 2001 reveal disturbing facts. The number of girl child is going down fast as compared to the boys. In Punjab, female foetuses are being regularly aborted as people can afford abortion. Data reveal that the number of girls per 1,000 boys has gone down to 793 this year from 875 in 1991.
Although India banned sex-determination tests in 1994, use of ultrasound tests has become quite common everywhere. The tests that were available in cities in 1980s, are now easily available in small towns served by itinerant doctors who carry the compact machines from one place to another.
In any case, Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act 1971 makes abortion legal only uptill 20 weeks of pregnancy. The various clauses, however, make the Act meaningless.
Health department officials in Punjab, say the state takes penal action only when a woman complains that she was forced to undergo a test and kill a female foetus. Unfortunately, the number of such complaints coming to the knowledge of the state government is almost negligible, they add.
