WAR AGAINST  FEMALE FOETICIDE

Women are worshipped and revered in every form in India. For the women she symbolizes courage & strength in the form of “Shakti”, “Durga”, “Kali”,  Vindhyavasini”, “Saptshringhi”, “Vaishnodevi” who crushed demons, asuras, rakshas and all form of evil in the world to usher harmony in the universe. She is also “Saraswati” the goddess of learning & fine arts. And she is also “Mahalaxmi” the goddess of wealth and prosperity who is worshipped every day. In modern times, India enjoyed for the first time in the world;  the unenviable record of electing for several years in a row a woman  Prime Minister. Mrs. Indira Gandhi gave India a firm leadership for many years in a row; and currently the Indian parliament is considering reserving over 40% elected posts for the women.

 

 

Besides religious inclinations;  women have always been accorded a highly revered status in every relationship—that of the mother, sister and wife-- in the Indian society. Some states in the country follow a matriarch cal system whereby all family decisions must have the acceptance of the women of the house who also enjoy property inheritance rights. The divorce rates have been one of the lowest in the world—over 97-98% marriages survive lifelong in India—women have been increasingly highest positions in the political as well as in the corporate and business world.

Yet these progressive developments cannot hide one of the worst impending ”gender”   crisis India is facing the rapid depletion of women’s population. The official census of the Govt. of India have revealed a sharp decline in the sex ratio of children in the 0-6 age group in the 10 years since  the last census (from 945 to 927 females pr 1000 males)

Occurring as it did during a decade that witnessed a marginal improvement in the skewed ratio of females to males in the adult Indian population (from 927 to 933:1000), the sudden fall in the number of girls in the youngest age group is believed to be proof  of the increased incidence of sex selective abortions—or female foeticide—following sex determination through the abuse of medical technologies such as ultrasound scanning and amniocentesis.

The most dramatic drop in the child sex ratio has taken place in the states of—Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra where clinics specializing in sex determination and sex-selective abortions are known to have been in existence for at least a couple of decades. However such clinics have now mushroomed all over the country. In places where female infanticide was a customary practice, female foeticide has come in as a deadly substitute that is less traumatic, more convenient and equally effective. If amniocentesis was the first medical technology to be widely abused for the purpose in recent years; ultrasound scanning has emerged as a simpler and more popular alternative. 

There is little doubt that in India the Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act 1994, which came into being in India thanks mainly to pressure from gender and health activists and supposed to have come into force from January 1996, has not been very effective.  The fact revealed by the census speak for themselves. While the adult sex ratio in one of the most affected states Karnataka rose from 960 in 1991 to 964 in 2001; the child sex ratio fell from 960 in 1991 to 949 in 2001. Sadly the medical community as well as the equipment manufacturers are governed only by commercial considerations and greed. The fact that ultra-sound scan machines are proliferating in several hundred small towns across the country; points to the fact that they are being used for sex determination. The sex-selective abortions are also highly profitable for the medical community; and they get any legal or punitive action stymied through political pressure as well as by bribing the local police authorities and law enforcement agencies. 

Datamation on its own voluntary  initiative has launched a major ICT based program to help prevent occurrences of female foeticide in India. Information Technology has changed the communications paradigm for ever. No longer it is difficult to reach  a large number of people more or less at the same time; and that too enable them to respond, interact as well as obtain a copy of the information within a low-cost. 

The Health and Family Welfare Department, Govt. of India as well as media and related agencies have managed to create a high degree of awareness as well as concern over female foeticide in the country. ICTs apart from sensitizing people against this heinous crime can also play a highly interventionist role by proactively pursuing cases against erring doctors, booking them under the law of the land as well as helping people in general change their opinion about "a girl child". 

In the absence of ICTs; other communications medium be it print or electronic are very expensive. Other media also lack mass-scale reach and penetration that ICTs can ensure within a very low cost and that too at an unprecedented speed. Some tools helping the  Govt. of India accomplish their cherished goal of all-together stopping female foeticides  set up by Datamation are : 

*Web site dedicated for Female Foeticide : This site www.indiafemalefoeticide.org  not only covers  the regulatory aspects-The Prenatal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994; Medical Council of India's code of conduct-but also includes a complaint lodging process in the best tradition of e-governance. The complaint lodging process protects the identity of the complainant; yet provide an effective vehicle for booking the doctor; maternity home, ultrasound clinic or radiology clinic. The complaints are retrieved into a database format at Datamation from where they are handed over to the competent authority for re-addressal The response  is also expected to be sent back to Datamation to enable updating of the database within a month's time; failing which an automatic reminder gets  published for the competent authority to act upon the female foeticide complaints received. 

The tracking process is separate for the medical community and for the people in general. The complaints pertaining to the families who have indulged in the crime; are  forwarded to the regional voluntary groups proposed to be set up for the management of these complaints by the Govt. and the competent authorities. The site is being publicized in the mass media as well as in other hoarding as well as in other communication channels deployed by institutions supporting this issue.  

The site in the future will be hyper-linked to other  gender as well as feminist web-sites across the country-such as Nanhi Kali, Nari Raksha Samiti, Nari Dakshta Samiti etc.  so that the traffic to the site can increase substantially as well as individual complaints can be tracked easily. Datamation’s team also proposes to work interactively with the concerned authorities to ensure that the complaints are tracked very closely as well as the case reaches a logical conclusion. 

The site will also have in the future very well-defined sections on : 

Pledge to stop female foeticide : A community of supporters will be created via web-site. The contact details of the supporters will be distributed to the grass root voluntary groups so that these resources may be mobilized for any counseling or field work as "volunteers" 

Donations for capacity building : All those who support the cause of female foeticide may be allowed donate from the web-site. The donations will be sought for the respective women's group operating in that state or for Datamation Foundation; for a number of issues such as capacity building as well as assistance in the implementation of the legal actions against the medical community. 

Using ICTs for capacity building of Women's groups involved in field work and counseling : 

Datamation has proposed to the Govt. of India setting up of an online complaint tracking and recording system at select Women's group who would be involved in the field counseling as well as in curbing female foeticide. The groups would be provided with :

--a Pentium PC

--Internet access supported with modem etc.

--tailor-made software designed to facilitate lodging as well as tracking of complaints

--status updating post counseling action; as well as future steps 

Some voluntary groups recommended by us  for the deployment of ICT based pilots are  : 

--Nanhi Kali run by Mahindra Foundation and based in Bombay is doing pioneering work in the area of protecting the interest of the girl child may be requested to look after the capacity building and counseling work on a pilot basis in the state of Maharashtra specifically in Bombay.

--Nari Raksha Samiti supported by Delhi Administration has been in existence for the last 50 years and supports gender issues such as anti-dowry campaigns, female trafficking, violence against women; may be requested to handle a pilot project in Delhi and Western UP, Haryana involving capacity building with the usage of ICTs as well as in counseling. 

Appropriate women's groups from other states would also be involved in this exercise. 

Email broadcasting to consumers about female foeticide : Datamation has been  constantly disseminate on continuing basis emails  to citizens having internet access. E-Pledges as well as E-Donations will be facilitated through Email broadcasting. Initial target is to reach over 3 million households by the end of first quarter 2002 using Email broadcast. The emails would also have a component of response management which would integrated with the web-site as well. 

E-mail broadcast to the Doctors/Medical Community in general about female foeticide : It is intended to  handle mass scale e-mail broadcasts to the Doctors as well as to the Medical community. The target for reaching out to this segment is over 300,000 Doctors, Hospitals, Ultrasound clinics, Radiologists over  next 3-4 months.

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