Author Topic: The difficulties of being a girl in Kashmir (Read 665 times)

AmRind③r · « **on:** June 29, 2012, 11:19:20 PM »

The scriptures, whether Hindu or Muslim, Sikh or Buddhist, enjoin us to respect and protect all women be they mothers, daughters, sisters, wives.

Yet women in this country continue to be disadvantaged. The Constitution of India ensures gender equality in its preamble. And did you know that the Indian woman had the right to vote long before her French or Swiss counterpart?

The largest democracy in the world voted to elect a female Prime Minister on January 24, 1966, a day that is given the status of a National Day for the Girl Child. There are few countries, even today, even in the so-called emancipated West, that have given women so high a place in public affairs. Yet year after year the gender ratio in India becomes more and more skewed in favour of the male.

And not a day goes by when we don't hear about a female foeticide somewhere in the land, a girl child, an infant girl abused, raped, murdered. Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Bihar have been the prime offenders for decades.

Today Kashmir, a Muslim majority state, has joined their ranks: the girl child is not welcome. Despite Prophet Muhammad's insistence on the safety and security of women, the overall sex ratio in Jammu and Kashmir stood at 883 females per 1000 males in 2011, indicating a fall of 9 points compared to the 2001 Census

So then why do we have a National Day of the Girl Child? Are we just paying lip service to the idea of female emancipation when nothing much has changed since Manu stated, way back in 200 BC: "By a young girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged one, nothing must be done independently, even in her own house". And further: "In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband; and when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent."

India is shining, we are told. Certainly the country has made huge strides in the economic, scientific, industrial and other fields. But in the field of social development, we lag far behind. This country that worships the Mother, there are instances of girl children being killed before they are born; and those who survive the womb and come into this world, are subjected to deprivations, domestic violence in all its forms and discrimination.

It has been reported that the death toll amongst young girls in India exceeds that of young boys by over 300,000 each year. Gender disparities in nutrition are evident from infancy through adulthood. In fact, gender has been the most statistically significant determinant of malnutrition among young children and malnutrition is a frequent, direct or underlying, cause of death among girls below the age of five. Girl babies are less frequently breast-fed and for a shorter duration; in childhood and adulthood, males are fed first and better.

And, according to one estimate, an adult woman has to make do with approximately 1,000 fewer calories per day than a man. Nutritional deprivation has two major consequences for women: they never reach their full growth potential, and suffer anaemia, both serious risk factors in pregnancy. This condition complicates childbearing and results in female and infant deaths, and low birth weight infants.

One of the major reasons for this kind of discrimination is that "people continue to believe that women are weak, incapable, not worth educating. This belief impacts on her rights and rightful place from childhood into adulthood," believes Nighat Shafi Pandit, a well-known social activist.

Author Topic: The difficulties of being a girl in Kashmir (Read 665 times)

AmRind③r

The difficulties of being a girl in Kashmir

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