The Hindu, Sunday Magazine, March 30, 2014
In the last couple of days, I have been at
the receiving end of some down-to-earth and commonsensical opinions
about life, values and politics from such taxi drivers.
The
first, a young taxi driver from Vasai, which is on the outskirts of
Mumbai, informed me that he was actually a “Hindu Brahmin”, but loved
Jesus Christ. Without much prompting, he then proceeded to predict that
Narendra Modi would win the elections. Would he vote for Modi, I asked.
Not necessarily, he said. Then whom would he want to vote for? Arvind
Kejriwal, he said. Why, I asked. Because, he said, he had watched
Kejriwal’s TV interviews. He was convinced that this was a good and
honest man. More than that, he was educated, qualified, had a good job
and yet gave it all up to do something about corruption. These were the
kind of people India needed in politics, he asserted. Above all, he
said, this was the only man who had the courage to take on the richest
and most powerful man in India.
The other was a
Tamilian who had lived in Mumbai for 35 years but continued to read a
popular Tamil newspaper (that now arrives in the morning because it is
printed in Pune). Despite the many years in Mumbai, he had a clear view
of Tamil politics. There was no doubt in his mind that “Amma” would
sweep the polls in Tamil Nadu. Why, I asked. Because she has looked
after the poor, he said. And she does not discriminate between Hindu,
Muslim, Dalit and Christian.
More important, he
continued, she has addressed the problem of families not wanting to give
birth to a girl child. He then proceeded to explain to me in detail the
government schemes that encourage families to look after girls. He also
gave graphic details of how families kill infant girls. He was clear
that this was an evil practice and must be ended. And he gave credit to
“Amma” for putting in place monetary incentives to help raise the value
of girls.
So, corruption and schemes that help the
poor and stop female infanticide were the issues these two men talked
about. Corruption features in election talk. And every party ruling a
state, or the centre, speaks of its pro-poor schemes. But what about
India’s steadily disappearing women?
Results of the
Annual Health Survey conducted by the office of the Census of India —
reportedly the largest sample survey in the world — have recently been
released. The survey covered 20.94 million people and 4.32 million
households in 284 districts in nine states.
While
the survey has a lot of interesting information on several aspects of
health, including infant and maternal mortality rates, its findings on
the sex ratio — at birth, in the 0-4 age group and overall — are perhaps
the most significant.
According to the survey, in 84
of the 284 districts there was a fall in the sex ratio at birth. In
some districts like Pithoragarh in Uttarakhand, the sex ratio at birth
was as low as 767 girls to every 1,000 boys. That is a worrying sign as
it suggests that the law to prevent sex-selection has not succeeded in
creating enough of deterrents against the practice of aborting female
foetuses.
Equally worrying is the decline in the sex
ratio in the 0-4 age group. This was visible in 127 districts and was
significant in 46 districts. Rajasthan recorded the lowest levels in
this category, while Chhattisgarh recorded the highest. The reason for
the decline in this age group is clearly neglect of girls after they are
born. Otherwise, there is no reason that more girls should die than
boys. Overall, the sex ratio was worse in urban areas than rural,
suggesting again that the availability of sex selection technology and
higher incomes contributed to this decline. In a state like Jharkhand,
for instance, while the sex ratio at birth was 961 in rural areas, it
was as low as 903 in urban areas.
In this election
season, where rhetoric is king, the reality of India’s disappearing
women — who everyone seems to want to “empower” — is not even a blip on
the horizon. Yet, it has been evident for decades that all this talk
about “women’s empowerment” has little meaning if we are unable to deal
with the despicable attitudes and practices that guarantee that girls
will not be born, and if they are, that they will not live to become
young women.
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