You’ll hardly find any girls here

Blind patriarchal beliefs have not only deprived the girl child of proper nutrition and education in Kharua village of Madhya Pradesh, but have also denied them of a chance to survive, reports SUSHMITA MALAVIVY

Any visitor to the Gujjar-dominated Kharua village in Bhind district in Madhya Pradesh (MP) would be struck by the near-absence of girls in the village. While one notices boys playing in the fields, near a pond or going to school, girls are not visible.

Almost all families in the village have two or three male children. No one comes forward to explain why there are so few girls.

When the author recently visited the village as part of a UNICEF team, a brief glance at the anganwadi records told part of the story. There were 120 boys enrolled in the anganwadi against a mere 18 girls, in the 0-6 age group.

While revealing the figures, the anganwadi worker cautioned, “Don’t tell anybody that I showed you the records. After all, I have to live in the village.”

Her husband, however, was more forthright, “Newborn girls are killed in this village and the methods adopted to get rid of them could range from declaring her dead as soon as she is born and crushing her head under a pillow to putting tobacco in her mouth.”

The child sex ratio in MP, according to the State Human Development Report (2003), is 920 girls to every 1,000 boys. India has reported a national child sex ratio of 927 girls to 1000 boys, against a world average of 1045:1000 men. In Bhind, it is just 835:1000. Further, while in urban Bhind the ratio is 842:1000, in rural areas it stands at 825:1000.

The sex ratio in the 0-6 age group has decreased at a much faster pace than the overall sex ratio of the country after 1981. From 945:1000 in the 1991 census of India, the child sex ratio has declined to 927:1000 in the 2001 census.

Health workers active in the area attribute the killing of girls to the patriarchal belief that girls are a burden. The dominant caste in the area, the Thakurs, believe the birth of a girl not only puts financial pressure on the family during marriage, but also lowers their status in front of the prospective groom’s family. What is striking, though, is the fact that Bhind is considered one of the most economically developed areas in MP, with several well-off farmers.

Until recently, ultrasound machine clinics in Bhind assisted the families in getting rid of their ‘burden’. The men in the village would take their wives for check-ups and force them to abort as soon as the female sex of the foetus was confirmed. However, after the government came down heavily on sex determination test clinics, many families went back to their primitive methods of killing their girl babies.

Today, many girls are starved to death in Kharua. If enquiries are made, the standard answer is that the girl became ‘Ram pyari’ (beloved to God).

Health workers say that while the decision to grant or take the life of an infant girl lies with the men in the family, it is often the mother who is asked to put tobacco in the child’s mouth or resort to some other form of killing. Ironically, according to a Gujjar belief, if men kill an infant girl they would invoke the wrath of the local Goddess, Mata Lori!

“I can show you places where baby girls have recently been buried. But villagers will never reveal the name of the family to whom the girl belonged,” says Dr Dev Singh, who has been raising awareness in the area against this heinous crime.

Government functionaries, though aware of the practice, have not been able to catch anyone committing the crime. Most officials have reconciled to the harsh reality that patriarchal beliefs will continue to deny life to girls in the village or deprive them of proper nutrition and education.

Sex ratios can affect marriage trends, labour force participation and other social and economic variables.

The region has already begun to report the ‘buying’ of brides from neighbouring states, as there are now few women of marriageable age in the community.

Women’s Feature Service

[Deccan Herald, Friday, January 30, 2004]