The sex ratio is declining gradually since many people do not wish to have girl children due to various reasons. The decrease of the female birth is continuing despite implementation of several welfare schemes for the protection of the girl child by the government.
As far as Krishna district is concerned, there are 951 females against 1,000 males. Women’s organisations fear that the female number would fall further in future.
It may be worth mentioning that the Krishna district is at the top in the field of education and the number of women having good education and acquiring higher positions is also high, but some people are still reluctant to give birth to a female baby.
All India Democratic Women Association city secretary M Sridevi says “fear of paying huge dowry for girl’s marriage is one of the major reasons that is forcing many people to avoid girl baby”.
She adds that AIDWA has launched a campaign called ‘save girl-child’ under which their activists are bringing awareness among “newly-wedded couple” on the need to have girl-child.
Stating the implementation of various welfare schemes for girls by the government is not encouraging, she appeals to the government to offer monetary benefits and other incentives to those who give birth to girl children as the increase in the girl child ratio is a must for society.
The increasing attacks (physical, mental and sexual) on women is also one of the prime reasons for the reluctance of giving birth to baby girls, observes P Hemalatha of Vasavya Mahila Mandali.
She says “In today’s competitive world both husband and wife are forced to work for livelihood. Therefore, there is no time to look after their children. The growing shameful sexual abuses and attacks on girls of little age is creating panic among parents.”
Strict implementation of laws for the protection of the girls and women by the government can change the attitude of the people towards female, she says.
Hemalatha laments that despite having several acts including the recent Nirbhaya Act, the culprits are able to avoid getting stringent punishment showing age as the cause hence the government should amend the law assuring protection to girls.
G Anuradha, a lecturer, says one’s surname can also be a reason for development of dislike for a girl-child. “For centuries our society has been allowing the male child to retain his surname but the girl loses hers immediately after her marriage. This makes many parents seek at least one male child to inherit the family’s legacy and continuity of the clan with their family surname. Maternal surname is in vogue in several countries and can be adopted in our country,” she suggests.
Another lecturer, R Krishnaveni, opines that women are physically and mentally stronger than men but, sadly, even women prefer a male child. “The basic education projects a girl as the one meant for domestic and household chores. This increases the dislike for girl-child among students in early childhood and makes them reluctant in their later life to have a girl-child,” she explains and wants such kind of lessons removed from the syllabus. She says there are many husbands who cook food and carry lunch-boxes to their working wives.
District medical and health officer Dr S Sarasijakshi says that dislike for the girl-child can be found mainly in middle and upper class people.
“Poor people never go for sex determination tests. The health department is continuously monitoring labs and scanning centres to put a check on sex determination tests. We are sending decoy customers to hospitals and scanning centres to find this kind of anomalies,’’ she says. As many as 46 decoy customers have participated in the sting operation in the district since January to July this year.
There are as many as 1,500 licensed private hospitals/clinics, 600 licensed laboratories and 285 scanning centres in the district and they are submitting reports to the department regularly on the tests conducted by them, she says.