Babasaheb Khidrapure, a homeopathic doctor from Sangli, would conduct unauthorised sex determination tests and illegally abort female foetuses.
On Tuesday, I began my day by reading about Babasaheb Khidrapure, a homeopathic doctor from Sangli, who conducted unauthorised sex determination tests and illegally aborted female foetuses. I was taken aback for a minute when I realised that almost an hour and a half hour away from where I live, around 19 girls were not allowed to enter this world just because they were female. My urban mind was not ready to accept this reality in 21st century.
Because, for a lot of us, such ‘incidents’ only happen in the interiors of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, among other states, not in big cities.
A quick Google search, however, busts this myth. According to data from 2014, Maharashtra as a state had a much better sex ratio as compared to Mumbai. There were 919 girls for 1000 boys in the state, but only 894 in the city.
This trend seems strange. Aren’t we city dwellers expected to be literate enough to understand that we should not discriminate between a male child and a female child? Isn’t that also the reason why Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Haryana, and not in Mumbai or Delhi?
Then where is it that we are lacking?
My mind took me back to a faint memory of my school days, a few girls from my class and I were having a conversation with one of our caretakers. She asked my classmate about her siblings and when my classmate said she had two sisters, the woman was confident that she would some day have a brother because God would not be so unfair as to not bestow a family with a son.
A few years later, when my mother was expecting my sister, some ‘well-wishers’ suggested that she get a sex determination test done of the foetus. That wasn’t it, some ‘educated urban’ people also suggested that she should get a treatment done to ensure that the child is a male child (Yes, there were doctors then who would claim that with the ‘treatment’ they suggested, one could give birth to a male child), or that she should eat dark chocolate to ensure that the child is male. (Maybe, none of them were taught biology in their schools.)
Today, I see my well to-do, educated friends worried about what to do with their heirlooms, if they only have a daughter or daughters. They keep trying to have a son and pray for one.
And, we blame people like Khidrapure for promoting female foeticide. Why do people like Khidrapure exist? Because somewhere we allow them to take over our insecurities when we say that only a male child can take the family name forward. Can't your daughter make you proud too? Why does it have to be a son? Your daughter too can support and stand by you.
As we celebrate International Women's Day, while enjoying all the offers that you get in malls and restaurants, please question whether you really need this day. By giving this special day for 'women', aren't we differentiating them from men? Rather, let's move towards a world where each day is ours and we don't have 'just that one day in a year'. A world where we don't go to people like Khidrapure to end female lives.
Happy Women’s Day!
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