Foeticide, the word makes me cringe with so many strong emotions. And every time it’s talked about feels like I’m helpless. It’s really true that the man to woman ration in India has fallen over the last 20 years and continues to do so. I wish this was a lie, a lie that never existed.

I struggle to find answers for questions like why is the girl child still a 2^nd rated citizen here? There cannot be a woman who has at some point, for a few seconds maybe, wished she was a man.

If it is true that woman has been able to break barriers, she did it without invoking love for self. Her existence is still needed but existence which circles around the needs of the world where she has very little place.

The liberated woman today too kills her girl child. She is still told to bear sons. She is still told that she has not been of much good if she is not the mother of someone who takes the family name forward. Technology now helps kill a teeny little heart which still runs blood inside and outside it. Do you think the smaller the embryo is lesser you will feel sorry killing her?

What else does a woman need to do to get the status that a man still enjoys? It’s strange how India as a country has given some of the best brains to the world yet has managed to evolve such sinister customs. As if Sati wasn’t enough, which is still actively practiced in many places across the country, female foeticide is the new rape of the day.

As we have been moving towards liberalization and have been de chaining a woman from the so called customs we have missed the basic counseling and similar activities for male and others in the family to help them cope with this emergence. As a result of the dearth of this very important awareness education more women have been consumed by hateful acts by fellow humans, the number of males has gone up.

Practice of dowry system is still flourishing. It’s strange that families that kill the fetus are in fact loving parents or relatives of existing female offsprings.

Here are my 2 cents on eradicating this sin from this pious land;

1. Ban sex determination. It needs to be an absolute NO NO.
2. Free education to girls till post graduation.
3. Do not marry girls into households having only male child or having majority male child. Chances are they might have sinned on what we have been discussing. With this some innocents will suffer but it’s a start atleast to ensure people realise having girls is just as important as having boys.
4. Extra benefits for homes having only girl children. Like Tax benefits or daily commodities for cheaper prices as compared to homes having male child or only male child.
5. Finally, time men stand up to their parents who advice them against having girl child. Tell them to take a hike. Warn them you will not take care of them when they need you.

I know some of what I said may sound harsh. But if you do not take these harsh and strong steps now we would have succumbed to this evil and many more thriving on women. Sati, dowry system, girl child murder, female fetus murder … just how many more rapes do you think this sex can take.

She will love you the most

She will learn from you the most

Just let her live for she is the girl child who is asking you to want her the most.

Popularity: 12%

After the historic reforms that came up in the 1990s, India has been growing in leaps and bounds with its GDP at 8% consistently. Many Indian service providers especially the ones in the fields of IT, Pharma have emerged as global players.

According to one stat in the year 2007 a total of 676 M&A deals worth around $57 billion were signed. There have been predictions by many eminent Economists about India having a potential of becoming a super power by 2020. India Inc. has been growing and shining, but is our society also been growing the same way?

According to Compact Oxford Dictionary one of the synonyms for Society is

A particular community of people living in a country or region, and having shared customs, laws, and organizations.

One of the major benefits of Civilized Society is to co-exist with people from different cultures peacefully. But are we fully acknowledging the meaning of society or are we failing to address any of the above?

Let us look at a few facts:

• Over the past one and half decades there have been hundreds of cases in Kashmir where people have been disappearing. According to Human Rights Watch, most of the Kashmiris who have been picked for questioning by the Police or the Army have either been tortured brutally or have never returned.

• After the Demolition of Babri Masjid on 6^th Dec 1992, India got into a grip of communal violence. No part of the country was spared and around 1500 people were killed in violence that lasted for over a week

• In 2002, post Godhra, India was again on the brink where in Gujarat was a victim of communal riots, where two communities resolved to lawlessness. According to an official estimate, 1044 people were killed and 223 people were reported missing, 2,548 injured, 919 women widowed and 606 children orphaned.

• On an average, two Dalits are assaulted every hour, three Dalit women and children are raped, two Dalits are murdered, and at least two Dalits are tortured or burned every day

• According to a report a total of 7,913 complaints on Domestic Violence against women were filed in India. But there are many cases that have gone unreported resulting in dowry deaths.

• According to the National Commission of Human rights of India, more than 62,000 human rights violations are recorded annually.

Looking at all these facts one begins to wonder where are we heading as a society?

Popularity: 15%