The Hindu Business Line : <I>A cause for alarm </I>

A few years back, a Hindi film made on a shoestring budget titled Mathrubhoomi that dealt with the issue of a skewed sex ratio, touched a raw nerve. The film was about a hypothetical situation where five members of a family have to make do with one bride. Though this might seem farfetched, UNICEF in its report reveals that a declining girl to boy child sex ratio in 80 per cent of districts is cause for alarm. While the reason attributed by UNICEF for this is the high prevalence of early marriages and high infant and maternal mortality rates, the main reason for this imbalance is far more sinister. The systematic killing of baby girls in several parts of the country, including in rich States such as Punjab and Haryana, is responsible for the skewed sex ratio. The Government's Pre-natal and Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, is observed more in breach because of the proliferation of clinics that flout the law with impunity.

A vocal Union Minister for Health, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, in response to the shocking child sex ratio has promised stringent action against clinics that flout the law. But that is easier said than done.

An alternative suggested is that Members of Parliament mobilise public opinion against this evil. Parliamentarian Gurudas Dasgupta has gone a step further by appealing to the nation to rise in revolt against female foeticide. Whether all this will have the desired impact is anybody's guess for ours has always been a nation that has glorified the birth of a male child while treating the birth of a girl as a curse. Unless this mindset changes the sex ratio curve might only head further south. And that would be a calamity that could cost us all dearly.

(The author is a Chennai-based freelance writer.)

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