DR. S. AUSAF SAIED VASFI opines that the basic point is ideology and the way of our living rather than female foeticide, and presents Islam as the viable alternative to the problem.
Can the world sustain without woman? This, otherwise somewhat romantic-cum-absurd question, needs to be cogently and succinctly answered by those wiseacres who believe in, and practise female foeticide, with the result that now there happen to be less than 93 women for every 100 men in the country.
Does any religion or holy scripture approve of it? Do the modern systems of governance, like imperialism and socialism say “yes” to it? From which angle, female foeticide is in the interest of any human family?
BURIED ALIVE
In the times of yore, the girl child was buried alive by the Arabs. The argument of the murderers was: we feel shame in giving our daughters in marriage to anybody. But today the progeny of those very Arabs celebrates daughters’ birth in a big way. Today some tribals in India happen to be the only protectors of the girl child and do not indulge in the bohemian act called infanticide.
The society as a whole, including those who practise it, looks down upon the perversity. There are laws and social bodies to curb the menace, which, however, refuses to die.
Before doing this article, this scribe tried to find out the results of the government effort. A health ministry official handed me over the latest report on the issue, which, based upon the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), said: between 2006-2008, 10 persons were convicted in 35 Indian States and the Union Territories under The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Test (PNDT) Act, 1994. This poor rather ridiculous official admission comes under sharper focus when we see that in all 125 cases were registered, out of which only 10 were found worthy of conviction. The official argument is: foeticide, conducted surreptitiously and with the active connivance of the service-providers and the persons seeking their services, which however, is not exaggerated altogether.
It looks as if the practitioners of the evil see to it that the effort of the law-support institutions like the National Inspection and Monitoring Committee (NIMC), the State and Supervisory Boards and Auxiliary Nursing Midwives (ANMs) as well as the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) do not succeed. But the laissez-faire attitude of the government too cannot be denied.
The PNDT Act, which had evoked hope among the simpleminded stakeholders, was implemented half-heartedly. They did not show seriousness in its implementation.
2001 CENSUS
The Census of 2001 revealed that the position of the girl child population, in the age group of 0-6 was far worse, particularly in the affluent Punjab (973 for 1000), Haryana (820), Chandigarh (845), Himachal (897) and Delhi (865). Maharashtra, Orissa and Gujarat also happen to be in the culprits’ list.
It has to be noted that before the PNDT Act, there existed PC and PNDT (Pre Conception & Pre Natal Technologies (prohibition of sex selection) Act, 2003. But nothing worked before the fathers, their parents and in some rarest of the rare case the mother, under the pressure. In sum, it is the authorities, doctors and parents who have been found hand in glove in this horrendous crime.
A sex determination language has been devised by the doctors in this regard. For instance, if a doctor says collect the report on Monday, the family is supposed to infer that the unborn child is a boy. Friday connotes the child is a girl. Also, signing a report in blue ink indicates a boy while red ink is meant for the baby girls.
The annual report mentions the fact that the CMO or CS is usually not empowered enough to bring the violators to the book. Also, the officially encouraged abortions to limit the family size add to the difficulty of nabbing the guilty.
What has to be noted is that with the passage of time the menace is percolating down to the rural level of Bharat, where one can see catchy advertisements like “spend 600 rupees now and save 50,000 rupees later”.
After the government hospitals stopped taking cases for sex determination, the private clinics started doing roaring business in the rural areas. Even the farmers, with marginal incomes, willing to take loans at Rs 25 per cent interest, started having tests. Today 35 to 40 million girls are missing from the Indian population.
Some of those who worship Durga, Kali and Laxmi do not hesitate in killing who they believe to be their goddesses’ manifestation.
Movies like Matribhumi – A Nation Without Women have already been made and mildly jolted a few but for the time being.
REASON
The fundamental reason responsible for female foeticide or female infanticide is LOW STATUS OF WOMAN in the Indian society. The said menace is virtually absent from that segment of our plural polity in which WOMAN HAS DIGNITY, as one sees in the Muslim minority. To Muslims it is not only a crime but also a sin of diabolical magnitude.
How the much-talked-of woman empowerment is possible in a hypocritical society like ours? Let the women’s lib organisations do some honest heart searching.
Let the powers that be, the serious and honest thinkers of the majority community, the social scientists, the whistle-blowers, the religious heads as well as the politicians of various hues and colours, who have time for national service, think in terms of putting a dead stop to this dilatory demise of womankind. It is at cross purposes with commonsense. It is murder of ethics and slaughter of morality. It is slaughter of higher, noble values. It is outrageous to human superiority. It is a cool and calculated insult to woman. It runs into the face of human family, nation and humanity at large. The society is the bedrock, the sheet-anchor of the world polity.
MUSLIM VIEW
The basic point is not the female foeticide. The basic point is ideology and the way of our living. No religion, Abrahamic or non-Abrahamic permits this dehumanising act. Yes! The prevalent non-religious political philosophies like imperialism and socialism, which in fact are two sides of a coin, directly or indirectly encourage it.
Since our independence in 1947 the plural Bharat has been doing Left-Right between them. No third experience has so far been made in this regard. If imperialism and socialism have not succeeded in wiping every tear from each eye and ushered in peace and tranquillity in the country, let the nation search for an alternative.
We feel Islam provides a viable alternative, which solves not only the problems of this world, but those also of the Hereafter!
Any question?