It's in our genes: Girl child a burden

Burnt, battered, abused, neglected,  abandoned and killed. This is the plight of many girl children if they are lucky enough to be born. Many others are just plucked from the womb and discarded.

So deep-rooted is the discrimination and embedded cultural ethos, that it is hard to find a comprehensive framework, that would even begin to work towards reducing the gender inequality.

Take the example of Bijapur district. The Chairperson of the local Child Welfare Committee Vasudev Tholabandi has managed to stop nine child marriages this year alone. It has not been easy. “Usually the intervention has to be on a one-on-one basis. We counsel, convince and cajole the parents.

What finally works is usually the fear of punishment,” he says.  The child marriage rate in this district according to him, is a staggering 42 per cent, with girls as young as eight years married off and this tradition has no caste, religion or class bar.

Abortion of the girl child foetus is so common, that female infanticide rates have come down. “We need a task force to  follow up carefully on these issues,” Vasudev says.

In Dharwad, Ashok, a child rights activist with the organisation Kids, is frustrated. “We barely get a day’s notice when these child marriages occur. We have to rush to the parents and convince them and finally tell them that they can be punished, as marrying the girl child is illegal. Just when they begin to get convinced, some political functionary or the other steps in and gives them his blessings and protection to go ahead with the marriage,” he fumes.

Child rights activists fear that discriminatory practices are actually on the increase. Doctors are available everywhere and for a cost, any diagnostic lab with scanning equipment will tell you whether the foetus is a girl or a boy. Getting it removed if it is a girl from another doctor is just a formality.

Vast arena of focus

“Many parents do not even think that giving preference to a boy over a girl child is discriminatory. The state administration is simply not geared to handle it,” says Mamata C R, a member of Karnataka State Protection of Child Rights Commission.

According to her, programmes addressing gender inequality have taken a backseat. “Between 2000 and 2004, campaigns were held in schools and it was a part of school education. Now, there is not much focus and no change in attitude either,” she says.

The fault also lies with linking empowerment with providing services and facilities. Programmes aimed at empowering women rarely deal with empowering them with decision making. “Such strong focus requires a lot of thinking on the part of the government and we have a very minuscule percentage who are capable of it,” Mamata says.

Despite stringent rules and Acts that exist to protect women, many do not even know whom to approach to even report a problem. “Constant awareness campaigns and motivation are a must. Just showing films and distributing leaflets will not work,” Nagasimha G Rao of Child Rights Trust opines.

“It is a society that treats a girl as ‘minus’ and a boy as ‘plus.’ We need an exceptional policy which should have a wide scope” says counsellor Dr T S Chandrashekar.

Exceptional cases where a child has been subjected to extreme violence should also be assessed and analysed, he says.

Chandrashekar also points out that it is important to educate a family to identify early warning signs in a person prone to cruelty. “The families usually experience some signs of disturbing behaviour. Early intervention could help prevent these acts of extreme cruelty, he notes.