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Thirty-eight-year-old Meera Ekhande from Beed district in Marathwada region of Maharashtra had given birth to seven girls and aborted two, but her family kept insisting on having a son. In her tenth pregnancy, Meera was delivered of a stillborn boy and she died because of excessive bleeding. But this is not an isolated case in this drought-affected region.
Though preference for a son is a pan-India phenomenon, in the drought-hit Marathawada, sons are treated as saviours and daughters are looked down as a heavy burden. The dowry system is quite strong and pervasive in the region and many farmers have ended their lives because of loans they had taken to pay dowry for their daughters, says Sunanda Kharate, a local activist.
Dowry system
Rates of dowry range from ₹1 lakh to ₹50 lakh here. Active sex selection via foetal abortions is widely prevalent in many parts of Marathwada. But at the same time, parents keep having children till they get a son or a desired number of sons. This son “meta” preference has led to multiple number of children in families in the drought zone.
Medical officers in government-run hospital in Majalgaon where Meera died on Friday said that she died of excessive bleeding and women who are pregnant for two or more times have higher chances of excessive bleeding. Meera had conceived on the insistence of family members and her husband, but police have registered a case of accidental death.
Even as female foeticide continues in the region, people have found another way to avoid legal action. “Women are treated like a machine. Till a son is born, women are made to deliver. This heinous practice has many socio-economic angles,” said Beed-based activist Manisha Tokale.
Unending woes
“It is not that we don’t love our daughters, but then they have to go to another house after marriage and we cannot marry them off without dowry,” said Nana Bhoge a farmer from Beed. Not surprisingly, Beed has the worst child sex ratio: 801 girls per 1,000 boys (2011 Census).
“The majority of the girls are married when they are in schools. After marriage, they have to compulsory deliver at least two sons. After men commit suicide under a loan burden, they are left struggling for survival and raising the children,” said Aurangabad-based advocate Swati Nakhate.
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