Question

Female foeticide - the blot on our society

Answer 1

India is tipped to be the next superpower. India is said to be the next economic powerhouse. India is said to be the upcoming global leader. Decades ago, our forefathers saw a bright and powerful future for India as they fought for Independence. But, the harsh reality is, that judging by the direction in which India and its basic sense of morality is heading, none of this is important. In a country wherebasic human qualities of morality and righteousness are simply missing, what use is economic and scientific development? In a society where an entire gender is disrespected, disregarded, ill-treated, subdued and deprived of basic rights – including that of living – what value does innovation and invention have? Where people have no shame and feel no guilt at murderinga defenceless, innocent, unborn baby – where (unborn) children are slaughtered by their own parents – what is progress and development? Where words like justice, respect, honour, care – simply remain words. Yes, this is where India has peaked – or rather, this is where we have peaked India. Isn’t it ‘Mother India’? Ha, what an irony.Female foeticide is simply the most heinous, atrocious, and disgusting practice humans could have come up with. Just where is the humanity in these humans? If India has to develop or progress, if it has to be something more than a piece of land on the world map, if it has to take even one step further for something good – it’ll have to first, and foremost, eradicate this menace of female foeticide.The consequences are severe. What could happen is already happening, and it could easily worsen. The very civilization India has been building in all its years of history, could come crumbling down. And it will, unless we learn to respect and value the fairer sex. Now.India is a land that has grown immensely over the years. But it is also a land that is bogged down so heavily by acute problems on the inside, that it has no chance facing problems from outside. It is also a land that needs to realize and understand the value of a human life. It is land where the girl child is considered as ‘Devi’ (Goddess). But it is also a land where this very ‘Devi’ has no respect, no dignity, no value.We need to come together. We need to work – and work hard. Till this evil is not completely eradicated from our system – from our society. Because unless we learn to value the female gender, we are not going to progress. Because unless we learn to respect her, we are going down – and the fall is irreversible. India is going no further in any field till it learns to treat its women with equal dignity, respect and honour. And unless we do anything about it now, we are going to learn this the hard way. Change will not take place overnight – it never does. It may already be too late. But every moment we put off the action, the consequences will turn graver. The disruption this practice has caused, will take time to erase – to disappear. It will take time to make things right. But we cannot sit waiting for it to become alright. Because, unless we – each one of us – stand up and raise our voices, it will never be alright. And that, trust me, is not a future we want – not now, not ever.As Justice YK Sabharwal, Chief Justice of India, very rightly said in his speech about the Eradication of Female Foeticide, on December 17, 2006 in Patiala,“They say that in law, everything has two sides. That there is no right and no wrong, no black or white – only shades of grey. But here, I honestly do not see two sides. Though rare, it is true that sometimes what is wrong…is wrong…is wrong – and I believe this is one such time. There are no grey areas when it comes to female infanticide or female feticide.  It is simply wrong.“