incidence of both female infanticide and female foeticide in
India are appalling.
rant of its negative consequences. If they still go in for it,
it is because their mental calculus tells them that if they
allow the girl child to be born or survive, their living condition and future life would be adversely affected.
There is no conclusive evidence whether there is a class
bias in the incidence of female foeticide. All that researches have indicated is that it cuts across all communities, castes and classes. It seems that there is an imminent need to explore this dimension a little more deeply. On
the face of it, it would seem that female foeticide is a
typically middle class phenomenon. Advanced medical
technology is available primarily in big cities and towns. It
has still not reached the villages unless the villager is
willing to travel to a city or town for diagnostic purposes.
Moreover, this technology is still quite costly which an
average villager in far away Rajasthan or Maharashtra can
ill-afford. His daily concerns are centred on providing two
square meals for himself and his family and he is hardly in
a position to pay an enormous sum, at least in terms of his
existential realities, for ultrasound. I would contend that
female foeticide prevails mainly in the middle class and
among those villagers in the countryside who have registered a degree of social mobility. The poor take recourse to
female infanticide if they feel that they are reluctant to have
a girl child.
What is it, then, that socially sustains the practice of female foeticide and female infanticide? It is a strong bias
against the girl child caused by a range of social practices
that devalue the girl child on the one hand and reinforce an
equally strong bias in favour of the male child. So deep
seated is this bias that it has also spread into religion and
folklore. It is clear that there is an early recognition of the
special value accorded to male children in the family. The
happiness expressed all around at the birth of a son and
the way the parents and close relatives of the newborn are
congratulated hardly escapes the attention of small children. Elders bless young girls and women by wishing them
a large number of sons. The notion of the greater value of
sons is further strengthened by the existence of special
worships, fasts and observances that are performed by
women to have sons and to ensure a long life for sons
already born. A girl after whom a son is born comes in for
special praise as auspicious and auguring good fortune. In
brief, the process of socialisation through rituals and ceremonies, and the use of language (proverbs, blessings and
songs, modes of chastisement and in several others) are
geared towards emphasising and dramatising the girls’ inferior status.
I said earlier that the focus of the government and the nongovernmental organisations engaged in the battle against
female foeticide has so far been on attitudional change and
consciousness-raising. This is welcome as it does make
people aware of the social evil of female foeticide and
female infanticide. However, there is need to recognise that
consciousness-raising alone won’t help greatly. It is not
that the parents who indulge in female foeticide or female
infanticide are not aware of the fact that