Women empowerment is so prominent in our generation, yet till this day there are still many countries that consider prenatal sex determination.
In many South-Asian countries, including India, a great deal of families prefer the birth of a baby boy instead of girl. This is because boys are viewed as assets who will be the primary breadwinners, the heir that carries the family name, and take care of the parents when older. On the other hand, a girl is seen as a liability that they have to raise and then send off after marriage with money and gifts.
How is it that we worship all these deities yet we consider a boy to be more superior than a girl?
In our last blog, A Love Letter to my Younger Sister, we discussed a personal story to emphasize the value of girls. Girls are able to accomplish just as much as boys education, career, and life wise, yet the story of woman empowerment isn’t always present in every household. Not only are families in general discriminative towards daughters but, ironically, so are the mothers. In a study done, women who knew they were going to have a baby boy went to more appointments, got their shots done on time and ate regularly compared to when they knew they were going to have a daughter (NPR). Most of these times is because the women are blamed for having a daughter, and they do not wish to have their daughters grow up in an environment where they will not be loved.
Prenatal Laws
In India, there are two laws that prohibit families from being able to tell their babies sex: the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act 1971 and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniquies 1994. Both of these laws prohibit any individual from knowing the gender of a baby unless the circumstance is critical. This is because there are still many families till this day that make the woman abort her child if the baby is a girl. Not only are these laws put into place but abortion is also illegal besides certain circumstances. For example, if the woman was raped and had a child, she would be allowed to have an abortion, or if the life of the mother was critical and abortion was the only option it would be allowed (Library of Congress). These laws put into place help decrease the number of baby girls killed but sadly has not eliminated it completely. Gender-based discrimination in pre-natal is huge in India and an estimated 239,000 deaths of girls each year! (Time). There should not be a law against abortion in the first place to ensure that girls are safe, because girl should be valued regardless. Taking a look at this number in 2020 seems shocking because we would think that this number should be significantly lower or even at zero. Our generation must make the difference! If we change our mentality on baby girls and boys and treat them all equally then this number will go down as time goes on.
Reality Check
Even in the modern generation there are still Indian reality shows and movies that depict the preference of a son versus a daughter in the family. One movie that depicts this aspect in a comical way is Badrinath Ki Dulhania. In the first few scenes of the movie, they basically talk about how a boy is an asset and the girl is a liability. When we see many movies they usually state no individuals or animals were harmed in the making of this movie; however, this movie has a disclaimer about the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961 (The New York Times). In the movie this idea is depicted subtly, but also in a comical way, which shows that this idea is still taken lightly in some parts of India. This is to say that if reality can not change the way we perceive males and females, then the world will never create a perspective on their own and will follow the mass media.
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao
Despite many girls being killed there are plans that implement the welfare of girls in India. For example, an organization called “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” (save the daughters, give daughters an education), aims to help spread awareness and promote education and safety of girls. They discuss how the ratio of boys to girls in India is significantly different and this needs to be changed. They target states in India that have lower number of girls and are trying to ensure the stop of infanticide or feocide. I believe that every girl has the right to live her life and obtain an education and this can only be done if we are able to save the lives of our daughters. I think this initiative is amazing because it only takes one change or organization to help a person's viewpoint change, and if Beti Bachao is able to help promote awareness they could be able to help bring the number of deaths of girls significantly down (Beti Bachao Beti Padhao).
Girls are killed for their sex and because they are considered a burden. They are innocent, but no one stops to think that these girls are the ones that start and raise a family in the first place.
If girls are killed, there would be no males to even exist in this world!
Therefore, daughters should be considered a blessing not a burden towards a family.