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| Picture of the week |
Though India has come a long way in regards to women’s rights and gender equality, one serious problem continues to persist. Families continue to display a strong preference for sons, and female feticide has continued to be a widely accepted practice in Indian society. The child sex ratio has decreased from 976 girls for every 1,000 boys in 1961, to 962 in 1981, and further down to 927 in 2001. It has been estimated that 10 million fetuses have been aborted in India over the last two decades. In order to decipher why this problem has become increasingly prevalent in the midst of women’s empowerment movements, we must examine the problem within the context of Indian society, and understand the issue as a reflection of Indian social and cultural norms.
Within the Indian tradition, sons have historically been perceived as the breadwinners and caretakers of the family. While it was traditionally not viable for a woman to have a high-paying job, men faced no discrimination in terms of obtaining an education and employment, thereby ensuring their financial security and ability to provide for their families. This form of discrimination has given rise to the Indian woman who will never be liberated from the supremacy of a man; authority over her is passed down from her father, to her husband, to her sons. She is never free, and a single life independent from male control was traditionally and still is generally not accepted by Indian society.
Sons have also traditionally been expected to take care of their parents in their old age. While daughters are married off and leave the home when they are very young to live with their husband’s family, sons remain with the parents, providing them with the financial and emotional security which their daughters, living away from home, and most likely without a job, could not guarantee.
The dowry system, which has been in place in India for thousands of years, also continues to play an important reason behind the preference for sons. I interviewed a lower caste woman at a basti (slum) in Jaipur about why so many expecting mothers are desperate for sons. Forty-two year old Camila, mother of three sons and one daughter, explained to me that her main concern was not being able to afford a dowry. When I asked if her preference for her first born would have been different had she had more money, she replied that yes, she would have instead wanted a girl.
India’s tradition of providing a dowry for the son-in-law has caused daughters to be viewed as a liability and a burden to parents. This custom has caused a whole other range of problems in and of itself, including dowry deaths and honor killings, in addition to female feticide and infanticide.
Other aspects of Indian culture which have contributed to the overlying preference for sons also exist. I spoke to Camila’s husband, Puran, whose main concern was with family lineage: “I wanted a boy because he carries the family name, whereas a daughter will leave to join another family.” Within the Hindu tradition, sons are also designated to light the funeral pyre in order to cremate their parents, whereas girls are given no such honorable responsibilities.
I was particularly disheartened when I spoke to another mother, Rajski, from the same basti who said she would have been equally inclined to have had a daughter were it not for the pressure she felt from her family: “I wanted a son because it is considered prestigious to have a son. I wanted more respect in my family, and my position increased in my family when I had a son, though I would have been just as happy to have a girl first.” Unfortunately this is the case among many Indian women, and many expecting mothers who would have otherwise had no preference, wish for a son in hopes of pleasing their families.
Though the question still remains, why has the rate of female feticide increased in the last two decades? The answer lies in modern technology.
Ultrasound machines and amniocentesis tests which can determine the sex of a fetus have become widely available throughout India. Frightening slogans such as “Better 500 rupees now than 500,000 later” which have become popular throughout India’s abortion clinics, reflect the common mentality in response to the increasing cost of dowries. These tests have become so accessible and affordable that they are even used among the rural poor, and you can find ultrasound clinics in some of the most impoverished parts of the country. In these areas, an interesting shift has taken place: female infanticide has been replaced by the lesser-guilt option of feticide. It is an unfortunate reality that a technology which was developed in the West with the intention of detecting genetic disorders and helping to monitor the health of an expecting mother and her unborn child has, at the same time, promoted such an inhumane practice in the developing world. Mixing modern technology with traditional society is a risky business, and, as we have seen, can lead to unpredictable, frightening results.
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| View of the sunset taken from a train, somewhere in between Jaipur and Ranthambore |
One would presume that this seemingly tribal practice would be far more prevalent among India’s uneducated poor who cannot afford to pay dowries and who do not understand the grave consequences of a society devoid of women. However, I’ve been extremely surprised to learn that, in fact, the exact opposite is true: those who can afford to do so chose to design the perfect family.
India’s 2001 census revealed a direct correlation between higher education and increased rates of female feticide. Sikhs and Jains, the two most prosperous communities of India with some of the highest literacy rates, also had the lowest child sex ratio. Of the seven religious groups accounted for (Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, and Others), Sikhs had the lowest child sex ratio of 786 girls (aged 0 – 6) for every 1,000 boys, yet had the third highest literacy rate of 69.4%. Jains who had the second lowest ratio of 870 girls for every 1,000 boys, demonstrated the highest literacy rate of 94.1% out of all the communities. There have also been studies which show a relationship between the level of education and frequency of female feticide, such that college graduates and post-graduates have the lowest sex ratio as compared to parents who have had received an education no higher than a middle school level.
As it turns out, the literate and educated are no less prone to gender bias than are the illiterate and uneducated. They are, in fact, significantly more so.
I spoke to Mrs. Chhaya Pachauli, a spokeswoman for an NGO based in Rajasthan called Prayas which works with women’s rights and empowerment. She explained that the reason female feticide is so much more common among India’s wealthy, educated communities compared to the rural poor is because the educated are more aware of the existing technologies for sex determination, and are thus more inclined to carefully plan their family around having few children. Therefore, if parents are having only one or two children, the pressure for at least one of them to be a boy dramatically increases, as compared to poor villagers who opt for more children due to higher infant mortality rates. The practice is more common amongst Jains in particular, she said, because the expenditure in getting a girl married is astronomical as they are expected to pay an exorbitant dowry, significantly higher than most other religious communities.
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| I got the best spot on the train, sitting across from this guy with my feet dangling out the door |
Rather than causing people to rethink the values and norms with which they were brought up, education has instead enabled people to negotiate the social and cultural constructs of their world, thereby reinforcing societal norms such as gender biases. Though some Indians may be well-educated, the content of their education continues to reflect their country’s social inequalities.
The 1990 census found that there were 25 million more boys than girls in India. By 2001, this number had risen to 35 million. It is now estimated that some 50 million girls are missing from India’s population. Some rural villages have been found to be completely devoid of baby girls. How will India’s rising population of frustrated bachelors cope? Such communities have resorted to ‘mail ordering’ brides from impoverished neighboring states and countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh. However, as India’s gender ratio becomes increasingly skewed, trafficking women will not be a sufficient solution to India’s brideless men.
The reality is that women are not safe in India, even in their mother’s wombs. Laws which are easily circumvented cannot change practices which have been observed for thousands of years; people’s mindsets need to change. At least among India’s poor, it seems as if strides have been taken, as many women do not expect a dowry for their sons. When I sat in on a women’s group meeting in a rural village in Daramsala, the topic was brought up, and I was relieved to hear that the women were all in agreement in that they would not accept a dowry for their sons. It is the rich and educated who utilize their resources to manipulate the constituency of their families.
This surprising pattern refutes the commonly accepted theory of demographic transition which anticipates rational social norms amongst wealthier, better educated communities. India has such a strong hold on tradition, unlike any other country, which is why I have a feeling that it will not follow the typical pattern of development which has been seen by almost every other country which has gone through the same process. But I’ll save that discussion for another time…
Here are some pictures I took on a tiger safari last weekend. It was beautiful, but the tigers forgot it was my 21st birthday and didn't grace me with their presence. They better not forget that Obama is coming to visit them next month...
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| A bird barely escapes the jaws of a crocodile |
Amazing article, Annika. You must have had some great teachers in high school! A fascinating country, sad but rich in so many ways. I can't wait to get there in a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteTake care - Clayton