|
Book Review
Gender bias
RAMYA KANNAN
MISSING GIRLS: Manohar Agnani; Books for Change, N-222, Greater Kailash-I, New Delhi-110048. Rs.180.
Internationally sex ratio is defined as the number of men per 1000 women. However, when the British Census Commissioners started work in India, they found there were lesser men than women, so they changed the definition to suit the Indian context. That British practice, like many others, continues in India today.
Manohar Agnani’s Missing Girls begins with this little known nugget. A doctor, before he took up a career in the services, Agnani took on the corrupt nexus between the medical fraternity and enforcement authorities. It was his stint as the collector/district magistrate of Morena, where the practice of female infanticide was slowly giving way to female foeticide that provided him the meat for his book. His battle against the son bias courted controversy as a State Appropriate Authority quashed the cancelling of licenses of doctors indulging in foeticide.
Steep decline
The author confesses that he wrote the book because he felt not only were people ignorant of the magnitude of the problem, but also lacked appropriate strategies to address it. He hopes his book, which is rich with the experience of someone close to policy and implementation, will provide that direction that is needed.
He starts with the Census figures to lay the base for his case. Child sex ratio (CSR) (2001 Census) in States like Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are much below the national averages. What is most alarming is his conclusion that a steep decline in sex ratio happened in the period of 10 years, between two census reports. He goes on to demarcate CSR by religious communities, identifying the Sikhs and Jains at “obnoxiously low” levels.
He follows this up by fleshing out the circumstances that led to the gender dichotomy, through historical and mythical periods in the evolution of man, with much research. This establishes the position of woman as caught up in a patriarchal and feudal set up, sometimes even forced to the extreme of gender change. This book distances itself from becoming yet another treatise on the “subjugation of women” with its clarity in analysis. As is only to be expected, dowry and population policies form key inputs in the book. At the point where Agnani asks: “Who has the will or even desire to swim against the current?” his passion and commitment are clear. But what is also obvious is the frustration of a man who knows how the system thwarts initiatives to make a change or bring in a better life for girl children. An appendix on the various provisions of the laws applicable to the issue comes in handy, but one wonders if such a well-researched book could not have incorporated the South Indian angle, especially Tamil Nadu, which has a chronicled history of practising infanticide and foeticide.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Book Review
|
