Many districts in Tamil Nadu show a skewed sex ratio

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Tamil Nadu female foeticide: Male over female

Secondary sex ratio (also called sex ratio at birth) in Tamil Nadu is declining at an alarming pace, reveals recent data. While the standard sex ratio at birth should be 952 females per 1000 males, it is 939:1000 in some rural parts of Tamil Nadu.

While various socio-economic factors can be attributed to this decline in the secondary sex ratio, activists point out that advancement in technology has facilitated this decline. It is very easy now to determine the sex of the foetus through ultrasonography. The mushrooming scan centres in the state bear testimony to the fact that the business is flourishing. Jeeva, a member of the core committee of the Campaign Against Sex Selective Abortion (CASSA) points out while talking to TSI that there are 3560 pre-natal scan centres in Tamil Nadu, and though they all claim that they do not reveal the sex of the foetus to anybody, the declining sex ratio at birth tells another story.

“There are 1530 primary health centres (PHC) in Tamil Nadu run by the government. According to the data available in 2008, at 689 PHCs the sex ratio is below normal,” adds Jeeva. Besides, as many as 434 primary health centres recorded a shocking sex ratio at birth below 900 female children per 1000 males.

“Earlier it was female infanticide. The districts of Madurai, Theni, Salem and Dharmapuri were particularly notorious for this. But now with the advent of scan centres it has transformed into female foeticide. This practice is prevalent in other districts also. This inhuman trend is being noted in about a dozen districts in Tamil Nadu,” says Balasundari, state convenor, CASSA.

The preference for male children over female has resulted in skewed sex ratio. Although determination of sex before birth through pre-natal diagnostic techniques is illegal, not many diagnostic centres abide by the rules it seems. Nevertheless, there are monitoring authorities at various levels.

“I feel the government should be more assertive and strict when monitoring the scan centres,” says Kavitha Ganesh, editor of the magazine Penne nee, adding, “The menace of dowry in society is still haunting the female child. It affects her even when she is in the womb of her mother. On the other hand I see that more girl students are being sent to schools and colleges, which is a positive trend. More awareness should be created in the society about the opportunities created for girls.”

S.P. Sarguna Pandian, chairperson of the state women commission, stresses the need of the society to be aware of the value of a female child. “When we kill a female child, whether in the womb or outside, we kill a mother who can give birth to many boys. Those who run scan centres should take a pledge that they would never disclose the sex of the child,” she says while talking to TSI.

She also highlights the steps the state government is taking to discourage people from killing girls in the womb. “Now Tamil Nadu government gives more economic help to girls from their education to marriage. Besides, it has brought law to make female children to be the legal heir of the family,” informs Pandian.

The statistics show a healthy sex ratio among the educated sections. So probably the answer to the problem lies in education and awareness.

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Former Andhra CM suddenly talks of farmer welfare

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Andhra pradesh politics: Naidu's changed tone

When Nara Chandrababu Naidu sat on an indefinite fast for the sake of forlorn farmers of the calamity-hit coastal Andhra, taking the public amnesia for granted, the farmers were happy to see a changed Naidu. The former CM's eight-day hunger strike is nonetheless a medical miracle as he is a severe diabetic.

“How could anyone believe that Naidu’s indefinite fast was meant for welfare of farmers,” housing minister Kanna Laxminarayana wondered while talking to The Sunday Indian, taking a dig on Naidu's allegedly anti-farmer policies. “Naidu’s much hyped Vision 2020 programme did not have any significant provision to rehabilitate the farmers,” says PCC Kisan cell chairman, Kodanda Reddy.

Naidu received flak from all quarters for neglecting farmers and labourers during his tenure. Farmers were asked not to produce more rice as the state had no place to stock it. They were encouraged to shift to commercial crops such as tobacco, cotton, chillies and castor seed. This forced shift led to more suicides as the ill-equipped small farmers were no match for the big players ruling the market. The commercial crops required huge investments which the small farmers could not make.

Naidu became more unpopular among the farmers and labourers when his government refused to sanction ex-gratia to the bereaved families arguing that it would induce farmers into a suicide spree. Owing to his lopsided views on agriculture, he paid heavy price during the 2004 general elections.

Now, Naidu, who paid little attention to agriculture and irrigation facilities and turned a deaf ear to the plight of farmers when they were struck by, is ironically projecting himself as a messiah of farmers. “I feel the criticism on our leader’s views about agriculture is biased and unilateral. Even if that criticism on his past actions was valid, will it take away his right to voice for the welfare of farmers now? Don’t you allow any revision and re-examining of thoughts and views?” Nannapaneni Raja Kumari, a Telugu Desam MLC told TSI when contacted.

According to the senior political analyst, B.C. Sekhar, Naidu is not a changed soul. “His consistent objective is to promote the commercial interests of the agribusiness companies, foreign financial institutes, international bankers and the IT hardware units. When there has been a drastic change in the world scenario and when agriculture has again come into the centre stage, Naidu has tuned himself accordingly,” says Sekhar. According to him, Naidu developed sudden affection for agriculture when World Development Report 2008 called for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries. Thus, Naidu consistently dances to obvious tunes, this time around it's in the name of farmers!

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MLAs' demand for pay and perks hike faces legal hurdles

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Orissa: legislators' salary

“Our salary is less than that of a class-IV employee of the state government,” said Pratap Sarangi, an independent member of Orissa Legislative Assembly, during a discussion on the hike of salary and allowances of the lawmakers. Sarangi was not a lone voice. Ruling Biju Janata Dal's Pradip Maharathy and Congress’s Santosh Singh Saluja also expressed similar views on the floor of the house. Cutting across the party lines, a majority of the legislators demanded a pay hike for themselves. An Orissa MLA at present takes home Rs 21,725 per month with the salary band at Rs 5,000.

Leader of BJP legislative party K.B. Singhdeo says, “Our counterparts in other states are getting much more than what we get. The amount given as constituency allowance, too, is very nominal. How could an MLA manage his public life with such a meagre amount?”
Subrat Tarai, a BJD MLA, expresses similar views. “Apart from their personal needs, a public representative has to meet public expectations too in day to day life. Poor people from our constituency frequently visit us for financial help for school admission fees of their children or treatment of any person or donations for social and religious functions. It is difficult for us to meet those demands with this pay,” he says.

A cabinet committee comprising of ministers for finance, law and parliamentary affairs was formed to look into the issue which has recommended to hike MLAs salary to Rs 90,000 per month. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had also given his nod to the recommendation, and had instructed the finance department to give final shape to the proposal, but a legal hurdle has come in its way. A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed by lawyer activist Nishikant Mishra in the Orissa High Court against the proposed salary hike. Making all the major parties a respondent, the petitioner has pleaded that the proposed hike is against public interest and will have cascading effects on the state's fragile economy.

Prasad Harichandan, chief whip of Congress legislative party, holds a different view. “Since the MLAs are lawmakers, they should not be given a free hand to increase their salary by passing a bill themselves. An independent commission consisting of non-political persons and intellectuals should be formed to review our demand. This, I think, will be a transparent process,” he suggests.

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The evil of violence extends beyond determining who gets to enjoy power, it destroys a society

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The sporadic but widespread bloodshed in West Bengal today is causing genuine worries among commoners as most of the victims or casualties are youths, bubbling with energy and potential but nipped in the bud by a ruthlessly violent political machine. They are being killed in the villages and towns, on the top of the hills or in the middle of the jungles, inside colleges and immediate neighbourhoods. People play the role of onlookers as if the young people – killed or injured – do not belong to the society.

The malaise is deeper than the episodes where social conscience is in a semi-comatose state. The society is in grave jeopardy. The disease of inequality, corruption and misuse of power is ruling the roost. Both state and non-state actors have used violence like it will bring magic solution to all problems. The somewhat normal life and livelihood of people in the villages, whose lives have been caught up in this conflict, have been shattered.

The loss to the society has two dimensions that interpenetrate each other in terms of tragedy. Certainly, those who were killed for no fault of themselves cause a loss to the micro-society they lived in. But the damage is more penetrating for the youths that were not killed but related to the dead souls. The differential social impact on the extinguished and the combusting ones makes its unstable presence felt here. One pathos pierce another, along with avoidable escalation of mutual hatred that hampers the social texture of normal times. It’s not that just the academic milieu gets vitiated; the we-feeling among the youths is seriously fractured.

These acts of bloodsheds, in the guise of intra-party and inter-party rivalry or by any other name, are not natural as such violent episodes are aberrations in normal societal life. Lost are social assets in most of these deaths. Political parties are trying to cash in on these killings. The more the number of deaths, the more buoyant get their political and material benefits, albeit in the short term.

When those youths were alive, political leaders and the parties never knew them. After their deaths, political parties politicise the funerals of the victims, organise processions with dead bodies and make them martyrs in their political interests. Even if they do not openly preach and teach violence, they are not shy of reaping the profits of violence. In fact, all political parties have ‘blood on their hands’ today. They not only reap the harvest of deaths but instigate and pitch in their part. It is the political leaders who create malice among members of Gen-Next and make them kill one another.

They are engrossed in shameless ‘parliamentary cretinism’, seldom caring for the society of electorates or the well-being of the youths in general. These people did not matter so much when they were living than what their blood-stained bodies are worth. The society is at dangerous crossroads though the political class has already crossed it. The wounds are inflicted on the whole society and the entire society bleeds. And for that, we the elders, the parents, the common people – who are sometimes afraid to raise their voices in fear of state reprisal – want this to be stopped. We demand that all the political parties give patient hearings to what we have to say.

Use of violence as a means of grabbing power is not just true for West Bengal. It’s a global phenomenon. Violence is made into a culture. Now a large part of the world is looking back at the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, who never compromised with violence even at the cost of the country’s freedom. He once said, “I cannot teach you violence as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one, even at the cost of your life.”

Political consciousness today is a vague and misleading concept as the democratic polity is injured and social commitment is tragically scarce. Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the conscientious ex-Governor of West Bengal, stated very aptly: “Violence is crime’s signature. And that signature, in its many twists and loops, grows. And it often becomes oblique.” Violence is a hindrance to democratic life and normal social growth. It is time to disapprove of violence in every form. Violence is introduced by the state, we have learnt that from history and are witnessing the same in our daily lives. Anything that throttles the freedom of life – not just freedom of expression, association or the Press – is to be opposed. But that protest should have no room for violence but should be conducted in a benign and communicative way.

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