October 2004

Laadli consultative meeting weighs options to fight sex selection

With the law doing little, what next?

The launch of the Laadli campaign brought together NGOs, journalists, government officials and members from civil society institutions for a consultative meeting on September 24 to help put forth a plan for the Laadli campaign. The campaign is led by Population First, and supported by UNFPA, UNICEF and the Mahindra group with a view to stopping sex selective abortions in Mumbai. [see Box - Laadli -- At A Glance]

All the 65 participants observed a two minute silence to mourn the girl children lost to the abhorrent practice of sex selective abortions, and pledged to fight the practice. Led by Ms.Bilkees Latif, a trustee of Population First, the gathering formally read and signed the pledge to fight sex selective abortions.

The consultative meeting was inaugurated by Dr.J J Irani, Director of Tata Sons Limited and a senior industry leader who yet again came forward with his support to a critical development issue.

Ms. Anna Dani, Principal Secretary[Family Walfare], Public Health Department, Government of Maharashtra, who Chaired the consultative meeting observed that the impact of legislation was limited.

Indeed, one of the issues that came to the forefront was the clear failure of the law. The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques [Regulation and Prevention of Misuse] Act [PNDT Act], which bans sex selective abortions, has witnessed one conviction in Maharashtra in the last 20 years that the Act has been around.

Ms.Dani pointed out that the decision to abort a female child is taken in the very private sphere of conjugal and family set-up and prenatal sex determination and the subsequent sex selective abortion falls within the framework of privacy and confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship.

At the same time, a woman seeking an abortion needs to merely state that contraception failed so that there is little on record to pick out a sex selective abortion from a routine abortion.

Ms.Dani said there was a need to work on changing mindsets and cultural values that support the practice of sex selective abortions.

The discussion focused on the option of banning second trimester abortions as most women who opt for sex selective abortions do so in the second trimester.

Also, not many appeared aware of the procedure for launching complaints under the law, where the "appropriate authority" [civic ward officers in this case in Mumbai] needs to be moved first, not the police, even though offences are congnisable and non-bailable.

Dr. Mandakini Megh, Officer on Special Duty [Reproductive Child Health -RCH], Department of Family Welfare in the Maharashtra government said that the involvement of police was kept to the minimum to protect the autonomy of medical professionals as well as to prevent harassment at the hands of vested interests. However, she said the government was open to amending the law, if required.

Mr.S V Sista, Executive Trustee of Population First presented a brief outline of the proposed campaign plan, which touched upon the need to work with communities to make them take on the role of watch dogs, focus on the youth both as influencers as well as direct target audience, sensitise service providers to the issue, promote a positive image of the girl child in the media, and to ensure more development opportunities to the girl child.

Mr.M Raghu Ram, Senior Advisor to the Mahindra group and Ms. Vijayalakshmi Aurora, Programme Officer, UNICEF shared with the participants details of specific programmes implemented by them.

Dr. P R Deo, Regional Director, UNFPA said the issue of declining sex ratio was of the utmost priority to UNFPA because the decline indicated a deep rooted gender bias. He said an advocacy programme on the issue was being launched in six districts of Maharashtra by UNFPA . Mumbai is not within the six, but will receive UNFPA support through the Laadli campaign.

A similar concern on the deep rooted bias was voiced in the welcome address by Dr.A L Sharada, Programme Director of Population First. "Population First aims to achieve population stabilisation within the framework of a rights based approach. Therefore, which numbers we are reducing and how we are reducing the numbers is equally important for us. It is in this context that the declining sex ratio is a cause for concern, as it reflects long standing gender bias," she said.

Ms.Kalpana Sharma, Chief of Bureau for 'The Hindu' in Mumbai observed that the declining sex ratio should be declared as a "national emergency".

"However, we have not been able to project it as such. This reflects the failure of our communication efforts," she said.

Addressing the issues of portrayal of girls and women in advertisements and TV serials, she emphasised the need to develop mechanisms to monitor their content.

"We need to dialogue with people who write the scripts for tele-serials and advertisements and also engage people from the print media in the discussions if we really want to change the perceptions about girl child," she said.

NSS Leads In Laadli Launch

Programme Is Embraced With Enthusiasm In Mumbai Colleges

The Laadli campaign took off to an enthusiastic start in select colleges of Mumbai on September 24, bringing up the subject of the declining sex ratio in the city [and in the country] in campus discussions and activities. September 24 is the Girl Child Day, and served as a platform for a college level launch and a consultative meeting on the programme run by Population First.

Laadli was launched in the colleges by the National Service Scheme [NSS], a government supported social service programme that works with colleges. From all accounts, interest was high despite the launch timing clashing with what is generally regarded as the examinations season in many colleges. Students enthusiastically signed the pledge to fight sex selective abortions and observed a two minute silence to mourn the all those girls who were not born because of sex selection. But there was also some sense of despondency and scepticism regarding the possibility of change in the near future. Said Dr.Suguna Rao, head of the sociology department at the K J Somaiya College of Arts & Commerce : "Students suddenly stood up and saw what was happening. This [the pledge and the activities] was done on a mass scale so it had an impact -- the pamphlets, posters, and bookmarks helped in communicating the message."
Dr. Rao, who is also counsellor/program guide for diploma in nutrition and health education programme of the Indira Gandhi National Open University, noted the despondency in some students: "Some girl students came up to me and said that while all this was fine, they continued to face pressures of early marriage at home."

"Early marriage and inability to make decisions regarding their careers -- these are critical issues. Unless we tackle these, we cannot go ahead," Dr.Rao said.

The issue of declining sex ratio is linked to the overall status of girls and women in society, so discussions and programmes must soon enough involve parents, she added.

In South Mumbai's Sophia College of Women, the pledge was read over the intercom system to enable all the students join simultaneously. The pledge was repeated thrice during the day in small groups of 200 each so that those not present in the morning had a chance to get involved in the campaign.

"Ours is a girls' college and one of our goals is working towards the empowerment of women. We felt everybody should be involved," said Ms.Anupama Srinivasan, Pogramme officer and NSS Coordinator at Sophia College.

The college also ran a poster, essay and slogan competition, and exhibited the works outside the Chapel in the college campus, an area never before given out for an exhibition, Ms.Srinivasan said.

"Our principal felt a place of worship was the apt corner for such an issue to be displayed so that the prayer becomes more meaningful," Ms.Srinivasan added. The exhibition ran for seven days, generating a lot of interest, she said.

A poster exhibition also ran in the K J Somaiya College and the King Edward Memorial Hospital and Seth Gordhandas Sunderdas Medical College and the attached School of Nursing. Both institutions were also unique in that they also ran a play: Mulgi Jhali Ho, Marathi for "A Girl Is Born".

Other colleges which took the pledge to fight sex selective abortions were the Maharashtra College of Arts and Science and Commerce, HR College of Commerce and Economics and the Hinduja College of Commerce.

POPULATION FIRST LAUNCHES LAADLI, MUMBAI'S GIRL CHILD INITIATIVE
Mumbai Will Get Together to Fight Sex Selective Abortions
(Newsletter September 2004)

Sep.24 is the Girl Child Day. At precisely 11 a.m that day, thousands of students from select colleges in Mumbai will stand up and observe a two minute silence to mourn the loss of all the girl children who were not allowed to be born because their parents opted for sex-selective abortions.

Mumbai, a city known for its affluence, modernity and opportunities for all, has a shameful sex ratio.

According to the 2001 Census figures, Mumbai city has 898 girls per 1,000 boys in the age group 0-6 years, a rank of 473 out of India's 593 districts. Mumbai Suburban district has 919 girls for every 1,000 boys in the age group 0-6 years, and ranks 420 in the country's districts. The world average for the total population [not 0-6 age group] is 990 females per 1,000 males [Source: The World At Six Billion, Table 23, 101 males per 100 females = 990 females/1,000 males] More...

POPULATION FIRST

Population First is a communications based initiative that embraces the government objective of achieving population stabilisation by the year 2045. Working to support the government's programmes, Population First builds the communication foundations for partnership between government, civil society, the corporate sector and the media, creating a common ground for sharing views and perspectives that will help lead change in society. The whole idea evolves around the belief that empowering women to exercise their rights helps achieve social development and provides a refreshing and appropriate framework for addressing issues related to health and population. A focus area of the organisation is reproductive health, which is closely connected with decisions on family size and must be seen within the context of equal rights for women and children. In this endeavour, Population First counts on the responsible participation of the community, a response which we hope to kick start at least in part by our communications initiatives.