Monday, Jul 3, 2006
Girls Bring Glory to Indian Village in a Nation of Boys
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Barely eight months old, Nandini sleeps in her mother's arms, unaware how lucky she is to have been born.
 Indian girls sewing in Jalahmajra
© AFP/File Manpreet RomanaFor in the northern Punjab state where her village, Jalahmajra, is located, a large number of girls are either killed before birth, or are considered a curse by their parents whose traditional preference for sons remains unshakeable.
With only 798 girls for every thousand boys under the age of six, Punjab has the lowest sex ratio in the country, where the figure is 927, still well below the worldwide average of 1,050 female babies.
Across India there is such a shortage of women that some men have resorted to buying brides from other states.
A study by British medical journal Lancet said this year that India may have lost 10 million unborn girls in the past 20 years, but Indian experts say the figure is not more than 5 million.
But in Jalahmajra, where Nandini was born, there is an average of 1,020 girls per 1,000 boys, a national aberration that has put the village at the forefront of a campaign to stem the crisis.
The distinction also earned the village an award of 300,000 rupees (6,542 dollars) by the state government last week, which announced the reward last year to any Punjab village which reports more girls than boys among its population.
Jalahmajra residents say the turnaround is the result partly of a sustained but strict campaign by the region's top administrative official, Krishan Kumar, who heads Nawanshahr district, in which the village is located.
 Indian mother and her family
© AFP Manpreet Romana"Earlier when a girl was born, people in the streets would ask the mother: 'Didn't you undergo a test to know the gender?'. That has stopped," says headteacher Devender Singh, referring to the practice of aborting a baby if it turns out to be a girl.
Under Indian law, tests to find out the gender of an unborn baby are illegal if not done for medical reasons, but the practice continues in what activists say is a flourishing multi-million dollar business.
"Now there is a girl in every house in our village," says Nandini's beaming 24-year-old mother Sangeeta Sidhu, who says her family is happy that she and her mason husband Gurdeep now have a "complete" pair of a son and a daughter.
The couple say they want to educate Nandini, and are not worried about arranging a huge sum of dowry for her marriage -- one of the main reasons why parents shun unborn girls.
Village head Hari Singh said he would use the reward money to build a wedding guesthouse, so that residents could save expenses for their daughters' marriages, almost always borne by the bride's family and often on huge loans.
Another 70 of Nawanshahr district's 472 villages are close to achieving the national average of a sex ratio of 927, says district chief Kumar, who launched the campaign against abortions last year.
Under the drive, Kumar mobilized all voluntary bodies in the state and hundreds of school children in street plays to create awareness in the remotest villages of the district.
Local workers were asked to inform him if any woman was pregnant, so that his officials could give her a cautionary call to convey that the authorities were keeping a watch.
 Indian sisters in Jalahmajra
© AFP/File Manpreet RomanaIn a few cases where a family went in for an abortion, he organised mock mournings outside their house to bring upon public humiliation on the family, so that it would set an example for others planning an abortion.
"The results are bearing fruit. Last month, an average of 944 girls were born for an average of 1000 boys in the entire district," says Kumar.
He said it was a huge improvement over the 788 girls recorded in the district last May.
Kumar's zealous plans do not end here. He now maintains a computerized record of all the pregnant women in his district of 600,000 people. Coming up next are hidden camera 'sting' operations on doctors carrying out illegal tests.
"People are now so scared that a couple came to me seeking permission for an abortion as they can't afford a fourth child. The cost of sex determination tests has shot up dramatically," Kumar says.
He said legal measures were not enough in a society with rigid mindsets and strong prejudices.
While Kumar's reputation for honesty and hardwork -- a rarity in Indian bureaucracy -- has made him a hero in his district and earned him accolades for his tireless campaign, his sometimes harsh methods have invited criticism too.
"If it is true that people have to seek his permission for abortion, I am very worried. This is state terrorism," says Sabu George of the New Delhi-based research institute, Center for Women's Development Studies.
George says the drive to humiliate families was unfairly targeting women already under pressure to bear a male child.
But Kumar says women, instead of being victims of pressure from their families, were compliant in keeping the practice alive.
"They call me on my mobile phone to report their fathers-in-law beating them up. What prevents them from reporting pressure to bear a boy," Kumar says in defence.
"These people (activists) have no idea about the ground reality. (Law) Enforcement alone has never worked."
Despite the controversial campaign, the official has won over many villagers also with his clean reputation.
"Our village has now become a role model for the rest of Punjab," says Jalahmajra headteacher Singh.
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