Sex determination in India was considered to be a crime committed by poor people who thought girls only caused them the financial crisis but no income. But apparently after banning sex determination tests in India, there are people eager enough to fritter away their money and go abroad just to find out if it’s a boy or a girl.

A recent workshop on Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PCPNDT) by the State Legal Services Authority (SLA) on Saturday unveiled this horrible fact. “Every year lakhs of unborn girls are killed inside the womb. This is clearly silent terrorism.” – Justice Arun Kumar Mishra of Supreme Court stated at the workshop.

Isnt it surprising that the ones (gaon wale) who are blamed for the determination tests are actually eager to have baby girls when being taught what women are to the society. On the other hand, the so called broad-minded upper middle class seems to have conflict with this. Hence, their curiosity leads them to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Maybe, it is because they need to prepare a room for the baby, and they are confused whether to paint it blue or pink; whether to buy the wheel power or a barbie doll? However statistics shows different: despite the fact of the growing literacy rate, the sex ratio is at the lowest in many states. Additionally, the illegal sex determination and the selective abortion of female infants have become an active US $224 million industry- a dangerous motivation for this contravention to prosper further in the near future.

Government can help the poor to raise a girl child, but it’s tough to make the rich ones understand to not to walk this road. They condemn the determination tests but follow it abroad.

So, what is the reason that makes middle-class and upper middle class families kill an innocent girl child? Is it that they want their venture to be named Mr. N and Sons, but not Mr. N and daughters?

You are blessed with a baby! Oh! It’s a baby girl. Those “ohs” are probably these thoughts in disguise:

1. Let’s calculate how expensive her marriage might be. No matter how far it is in the future, it starts right after her birth. The market value of gold is evaluated to make sure enough jewellery is gifted at the ceremony.

Baby Girl: Okay fine! But when I become a grown up, I’ll be empowered enough to manage my own financial decisions. After all, I am a woman of the 21st century.

2. How to tell relatives that it’s a girl. Well, mom would be angry as she wanted a grandson.  In patriarchal families the mothers are autocratic authority who demand male child.

Baby Girl: Seriously Grandma? I will be there to support you like your dentures.

3. How will we save her from the wolves? They try to raise her as a boy, and it all goes fine until boobs show up. It’s a shame when people think that its her fault for being a girl and then in future it will be her liability if someone eve-teases her.

Baby Girl: Uh-oh! I will learn karate and keep a pepper spray all the time. I will know how to knock some-one down.

4. It will be tough when she… em! Women, often young girls who’ve just crossed the threshold of puberty, are considered as a threat. One of the reason is child pregnancies, which are results of the inadequate sex education.

Baby Girl: Come on, Mom! You will be there to teach me how it goes. After all you made it through.

Well, most of it is true.  Like many other countries, India also is patriarchal in nature. Those, adding more fuel to the fire, are women themselves who go obsessed with the sons. Like father like mother, both praise the male sex as the key to carry forth the family lineage. Here, you as a woman, can be the change!

By Neelima Nausaliya,

Blogger