Nilacharal

Litigation in the Supreme Court

All along, female foetus are killed or discarded from the uterus after conception in the form of abortions after ultrasound scan tests. Now, this latest technology advanced this discarding procedure to pre-conception stage either in the form of selective insemination using Y-bearing sperms or by selective implantation of male embryos in the petridishes. No doubt it is an assault on the women community. When the country is debating for 33% reservation for women in the Parliament, the genuine and natural seat for women in the uterus is now denied. It is nothing short of a barbarian act. This controversial sex-selection procedure now widely available in India circumvents the existing law (Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act, 1996) as the PNDT Act comes into picture only after conception. The latest pre-conception sex selection technology prevents the very conception of female babies and it falls in the legal grey area. This explains the baby boy boom in the country over the recent years especially in Punjab. The Supreme Court in its ruling on the writ petition also exhorted the Centre and states to amend this PNDT Act suitably to keep pace with the technology. This month the Apex court is going to assess the action taken on its ruling. The government is contemplating on complete ban of the XY separation technique by bringing in an amending to the 1996 PNDT Act.

Social Implications

The attitude to avoid female babies has lead to a skewed ratio between male and female in the society. It is only after the scan technology got into the country the female population significantly got reduced thanks to the foeticide through abortions and female infanticide if the birth had happened. According to 1991 Census, for every 1000 men in the country there were 948 women. The latest Census in 2001 reveals that this ratio is significantly reduced to 939 women for every 1000 men. In those parts of Tamil Nadu where the female foeticides is highly prevalent, this ratio is reduced to 900 women for every 1000 men. Punjab is the worst among the states in this ratio. According to 1991 Census, it had only 875 baby girls for every 1000 boys. Today in Punjab there are only 793 female babies for every 1000 male babies. The skewed child sex ratio in the 0-6 age group shown by this year's provisional Census figures is appalling.

If the law is ineffective or the people do not co-operate with the government to remedy this skewed ratio, the social implications would be unimaginable. If the ratio of female to male reduces to 0.5 and lower, then monogamy would be the first casualty. This could be the reason why our epic Mahabharat depicted the situation wherein a woman had five husbands. If we continue to skew the sex ratio, the root of our culture would be shaken. For want of opposite gender, sexual crimes would go up in the society. The deliberate skewing of the sex ratio against women today would put tremendous stress on the then beleaguered women community where women has to give birth to more babies. There will be fewer women in every walk of life than what they are today and if at all anything it would fuel the women suppression more. The consequences can easily be understood as any aberration from the balanced sex ratio of one is to one would put undue stress on the minority gender. The consequences would not show up during our generation but it may boomerang on us after few generations.

What could be the remedy?

It is not only the illiterate and poor who want to have sons. Even the educated and rich prefer to have boy babies. The government has enacted laws enabling the daughter to have her share in the property earned by her parents. This does not seem to have a positive effect on the mindset to have only baby boys. The rich do not want the property to be split or apportioned, as that would affect their business. The poor for obvious reasons do not want baby girls, as the financial responsibility is high if one begets baby girl. As far as the middle class go, they are torn between the rational thinking and the reality. In reality, how many middle class men marry a girl without taking dowry? If not dowry, at least in the form of gifts a bride is expected to bring jewels form her parent's house. Apart form giving education, the middle class parents also have to save for getting their daughters married to a boy from a respectable family. Leave alone the jewels and other forms of gifts, how many middle class bridegroom families share the wedding expenses? Invariably, only the bride parents bear the wedding expenses. After wedding when the daughter becomes pregnant, all the delivery expenses have to be borne by the girl's parents. Our customs are designed in such a way that it demands more moral responsibility and financial commitments from the girl's parents. Let us accept it if we want to analyze the reasons as to why even the educated middle class go for baby boys.

With the social constraints that we have to live with it is very difficult to address this issue through Acts and Regulations. Even if we prohibit these pre-conception sex-selection procedures either by covering it within the PNDT Act or by legislating a new Act specifically to ban this procedure, how would we arrest the decline in the female population if the people and the criminal doctors collude with each other? Even now the doctors defy the PNDT Act and reveal the sex of the unborn baby to the parents after a scan test. The law can only be useful to an extent of being a deterrent. Beyond this, the reform has to come from the people. In this sense, the social reformers and the NGOs who champion such noble causes have to get the support of the government to bring in a positive change in the people's mindset. In fact, the government itself should become a roll-model for bringing in such social changes. The government should come down heavily on the social menace, the dowry system. Also, it should do everything possible to elevate the status of a woman in the society by offering more opportunities. The government may offer incentives for having girl children. Free delivery for begetting a baby girl, scholarships or reduced educational fee for girls, tax concession on the expenses incurred in getting the daughter married could be some of the concessions that the government can offer. The least that the government should do is to educate the public. The religious leaders can guide the society through their preaching and help to eradicate this social malaise.

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