We
the undersigned, strongly condemn the practices that have led to the
elimination of millions of girls and women from India’s population, and hold
the government of India accountable for failing to protect the lives of its
female citizens.
We
further contend, on grounds of human rights, that immediate and effective
action be taken by the government, through the implementation of rapid action
task forces, to halt this femicide. We also insist the government officially
commit to a time-line within which the associated practices of female feticide,
female infanticide and dowry murders will be effectively arrested through the
rigorous enforcement of existing laws and a stringent accountability on the
part of India’s hospitals, government offices, and law enforcement agencies.
We
further urge international human rights bodies and other governments to join in
this effort to persuade the government of India to acknowledge and honor the
call of this petition.
Today
my brother-in-law invited me to sign a petition demanding that
the UN, the EU and the G8 join forces to coerce the government of India to enforce
its constitution of democratic equality for all men and women. This particular
campaign against India's female genocide was started in 2006 by Rita Banerji,
who picked up on the language used by Nobel Laureate Dr. Amartya Sen in 1986 to
describe the phenomenon demonstrated in national census data. At that time, Dr.
Sen claimed that 37 million women were "missing" from India, and
since then, claims
Banerji, the number has climbed to 50 million. Dr. Sen later revised her
research and in 1990 tallied
the global number of "missing" women to 100 million.
If
we want social practices like these to end, signing a petition isn't going to
do it. India is overpopulated and many families want a first-born male. (A lot
is actually accomplished as preferential gendered abortion.) In a society that
cannot afford reasonable healthcare for all, money is set aside for males and
females are neglected.
Take
Japan, for instance. In terms of its historic preference of male over female
offspring, it is typical of Asian countries. But after World War II Japan was
not allowed to regrow its military, and consequently it put all its energies
into developing its economy. Now, as in European and Western countries, the
balanced has tipped to favor women at a ratio of 1.05 or 1.06.
Western
countries, too, have clear sexist treatment in favor of men -- look at our
political representatives, university professors and CEOs -- but we are wealthy
enough to be able to afford quality nutritional and medical care for all.
In
other words, perhaps it's wrong to look at the "missing" 50 million
women as a result of immoral practices that can be stopped through a simple
change in policy. Look at the mess that China is in due to a well-intentioned
attempt to guide change in population over time - and the male-to-female ratio
is much worse than ever before. How can democratic India jarringly mandate
equal treatment between males and females when their society is still very
classist in practice, mindset and design?
If
women have opportunities for gainful employment, slowly, perception of their
relative worth will change. In developing countries for so much more labor is
physical, women, with higher body fat and less muscle mass than men, are at a
disadvantage. Women were given preferential treatment in North America because
they were needed as the lynchpin to the colonists' cultural warfare against the
native tribes -- in short, we needed to increase our population, so we could
not afford to let our women die. India's population is bursting at the seams.
Consequently, to be blunt, what do they need women for?
In
some places in India, women are able to find gainful employment, and this is
likely due to high literacy rates in those areas. As regional populations
increase in wealth over time, education is more highly valued, which nullifies
the inherent physical advantage of men over women in densely populated and
labor-intensive areas.
The
petition is useful in that Westerners are being made more aware of the plight of not only Indian women, but women generally in the undeveloped and developed world. However, change comes slowly, and I doubt that Dr. Sen herself would have ever called for the powerful countries of the world to pressure India into using a big stick to stop social practices that have arisen as a result of the geographic reality of southern and southeast Asia. Even if we were to succeed in artificially ending these abortive practices against women, will not that many women still die from increased starvation, crime and civil unrest?
It is paramount that we look to preventing similar imbalances from happening in other countries. India is so far gone that it may take generations more to arrest these social practices and turn around the imbalanced male-to-female ratio. We need to understand why it is happening in India and learn from it. Reacting to it impetuously and forcefully won't necessary help the situation; in fact it may make it worse.
