Injustice towards Indian women begins before birth

‘Man endures pain as an undeserved punishment; woman accepts it as a natural heritage.’

Men and women are the two pillars of anthropological cycle of world without the presence of any one of these the world can come to an end. Beauty, patience, tolerance and power are synonym to women. India is a country were female are worshipped as Goddess Durga, Kali and Laxmi and in the same time there is increase in cases ho female infanticide in India.

The Constitution of India grants equal rights and privileges on both the sex. But as Amartya Sen had written in ‘Argumentative Indian’, ‘ the biggest crime begins against women, at the place where they are meant to be the safest, in their mother’s wombs.’

The states of Punjab, Haryana and Jharkhand have the worst sex ratios in the in the country. According to the 2001 census, there are only 874 women with respect to1 000 men in these states. The national average was 933. In fact, the sex ratio of Punjab has never gone above the national average. According to the 2001 census, the worst sex ratio in any state was Haryana’s. It had only 861 women per 1000 men in the state. It is shocking that at the time of Independence the sex ratio stood at a healthy 946, but over the last 60 years it has fallen to 933. Thus, instead of improving it is becoming worse.

Khap Panchayat is the local judicial body of these areas which encourages female infanticide. Birth of a male child is celebrated with great joy and pomp whereas the birth of a girl child is considered as taboo and jinx of the family. Parents of female child are forced to kill their daughter by giving them poisons and pesticides. Sometimes the girl children are killed before their birth. This all leads to serious consequences like decline in sex ratio. 

Women should be considered as human being, equal rights and privilege must be enjoyed by them and it is legal offence to deprive anyone from enjoying her rights. The people who commit such offence must remember one thing that women gives us birth and the decline in the number of girls in society can lead to decline the number of population.