Deadly Development
Sahiyar Stree Sangathan, a Vadodara-based trust, provides legal and counselling
support to women in crisis. It is also involved in a campaign against sex
determination tests. The group recently conducted an intensive cross-sectional
study, which threw up rather startling results about the declining sex ratio in
Gujarat. Trupti Shah , Sahiyar member and economics lecturer at M S University,
Vadodara, speaks to Chitra Padmanabhan about the falling status of women in one
of India's most 'developed' states:
Gujarat is considered one of the most developed states of India, with rapid
indus-trialisation and a rising urban population. Why do you find this form of
development 'anti-women' and 'anti-girl child'?
During the Census decades of 1981-91 and 1991-2001, Gujarat's rapid
industrialisation pushed up urbanisation to 37 per cent as against the national
average of 27. The two decades also witnessed a rise in literacy rate to 69.98
per cent, with female literacy reaching 58.60 per cent. However, this period
also saw the beginning of a rapid decline in the overall sex ratio. The
female-male child sex ratio (0-6 years) plunged well below the national average
(from 947 in 1981 to 928 in 1991 and 878 in 2001), manifesting a virulent form
of gender discrimination through sex-selection practices.
At 850, this negative sex ratio was higher in the 'developed' urban districts.
Ahmedabad district led the tally with just 813 girls for 1,000 boys. Ironically,
districts like Mehsana (797), Gandhinagar (816), Rajkot (843) and Ahmedabad
enjoyed above-average female literacy rates of 64, 65, 67 and 71 per cent
respectively. In comparison, the so-called backward, tribal districts of Dangs,
Dahod and Narmada, with low female literacy rates of 49, 32 and 47 per cent
respectively, have seen higher child sex ratios of 973, 964 and 952. The 'urbanised'
cities are even bigger culprits. Ahmedabad leads with a child sex ratio of 809,
followed by Rajkot (821), Surat (830) and Vadodara (832).
What has gone wrong in the last two decades?
Unlike the South, Gujarat's sex ratio has not been positive from the beginning
of the 20th century. The practice of female infanticide — 'dudh piti' (the
drowning a new-born girl in a milk pot) — was prevalent among some castes even
then. During our field study, however, we found that the interaction of
historical patriarchal values with capitalist development has affected women
quite adversely.
Earlier, the non-participation of women in social production was confined to
handful of castes but, today, more and more women are getting pushed to the
economic margins; their work participation rate in fact is even lower in urban
areas. Greater Sanskritisation — lower caste people adopting upper caste norms
to achieve social status — coupled with consumerism, has meant that the dowry
phenomenon, for instance, has spread even to castes that did not historically
practise it. Our research shows that economic uncertainty has increased
'son-preference' among poorer classes/castes, while the small family norm has
led to the same trend among the rich and the upper castes. The availability of
sex-determination technology has contributed greatly to this trend.
Many upper middle class families, who want just one child, prefer a son while
those who want two are okay either with two sons or a son and a daughter. Once a
daughter is 'allowed' to be born, gender discrimination reduces at the family
level, which gives the impression that it is declining with development. But
discrimination at the pre-birth stage in fact increases, leading to a more
negative sex ratio.
Is there any link between affluence and violence against women?
With affluence, the forms of violence become more intense and their extent may
actually increase. Today, many medical professionals market sex determination
facilities for easy money; others do so to spread family planning, thinking of
it as a form of social service. Sex selective termination of pregnancies
represents not just violence against the unborn girl but also results in further
violence on existing women. In societies where there are fewer women, they are
subjected to various forms of domestic and social violence — this is a
manifestation of the inherent negative attitude towards women.
How do you locate violence against women in the context of communal conflicts?
There is a link both between different forms of violence against women, and
between violence against women and other forms of social violence. During
communal riots, women, viewed as symbols of community honour, are subjected to
sexual violence to 'shame' the men of their community. This happened to Muslim
women last year. Women are also considered a greater 'liability' for their
families and the community, as the mass marriages of teenaged girls in relief
camps (following the riots) showed.
But there have been several pro-women political and legislative initiatives in
the past two decades.
Political parties that 'support' gender issues, without an acceptance of issues
of social violence and discrimination, dabble in tokenism. This is also true of
the Indian government's women's empowerment policies or the Gujarat government's
'Gender Equity' initiative. The struggle to end gender discrimination must be
linked to a struggle against all forms of social violence and exploitation.
( Women's Feature Service )
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