New Delhi, April 28
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today bemoaned that India was living with the ignominy of a gender imbalance.
Delivering the inaugural address at a national conference on ‘Save the Girl Child’, here today, the Prime Minister denounced the bias against girls and women.
“Multiple deprivations all with roots in the oppressive structure of patriarchy have resulted in bias against girls and women. This is a shame and we must face the challenge squarely.”
In his thought provoking message to the civil society for parity treatment to the girl child, the Prime Minister said, “No nation, no society, no community can hold its head high and claim to be part of the civilised world if it condones the practice of discriminating against one half of humanity. We are an ancient civilisation and we call ourselves a modern nation, and yet we live with the ignominy of an adverse gender balance due to social discrimination against women.”
The Prime Minister said India had a mixed record in action for the advancement of women. “We are one of the few countries in the world that gave women political power through universal adult suffrage soon after Independence. We also reposed faith in the potential of women in public life. Today, our local bodies have over a million women representatives.”
While drawing the attention of the distinguished audience to the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and the unsatisfactory 54 per cent female literacy (2001 Census) in India, the Prime Minister said the momentous action for political empowerment
had not been carried over to many other spheres.
In a fervent appeal to citizens for an
affirmative action to empower the girl child in every possible way, Manmohan Singh said he was speaking not as the Prime Minister but as a proud father of three daughters.
Expressing concern over the continuous decline in child sex ratio (0 to 6 age group) statistics in the past four decades, the Prime Minister said the decline in girls per 1,000 boys from 962 in 1981 to 927 in year 2001 was alarming. He said the 2001 Census indicated that the problem was most acute in some of the richer states as Punjab, which had only 798 girls, Haryana 819, Delhi 868 and Gujarat 883, per 1,000 boys.
Condemning the inhuman, uncivilised and reprehensible practice of female foeticide, Manmohan Singh said the patriarchal mindset and son preference was compounded by the unethical conduct of illegal sex determination services by some medical practitioners.
He called upon all elected representatives to join the campaign to save the girl child. At the same time, he stressed the need for mobilising religious leaders for a nationwide campaign to end all kinds of societal discrimination against women.
While the Prime Minister laid emphasis on the strict enforcement of the Pre Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, Union health minister Anbhumani Ramadoss said the legislation alone could not solve the problem.
“At the heart of the problem is the deep-rooted prejudices and the patriarchal social framework and a value system based on son preference,” Ramadoss said.
While pinning down the health ministry for alleged inaction on implementing the PNDT Act, Sabu George, an activist crusading for the cause of the girl child for more than two decades, said, “If we take the law seriously, we will probably be able to improve the sex ratio by 2021.”
Rejecting the government’s proposal to designate district collectors as the appropriate authorities, the activist said this would undermine the implementation of the Act as they were pre occupied with maintaining law and order.
George, who filed the original petition in the Supreme Court for the implementation of the PNDT Act passed in 1994, warned the government of further legal action if it failed to honour the Supreme Court directive to ultrasound manufacturers to submit the list of machines sold from time to time.
The health minister of Punjab, Laxmi Kanta Chawla, warned the menfolk that if they did not put an end to the practice of female foeticide, their sons may soon have to settle for foreign “imported wives”.
