Saving the girl child
February 22nd, 2007
The new Palna Scheme proposed by the Union Women and Child Department aims at curbing female foeticide and to check the skewed sex ratio in the country.
The scheme will be implemented by the ministry of women and child development in coordination with state governments, and is likely to be put in place during the 11th five-year plan.
The idea is to set up a cradle in every district headquarters where parents, who do not want to bring up their girls, can voluntarily give them up and the government will take responsibility of bringing them up.
As with every other scheme, this too has both sides and different connotations. At first read, it is a complete crisis intervention programme. While I do feel that such cradle homes might actually be able to give abandoned children a shelter and might even help in curbing trafficking, we must remember that female foeticide is actually a result of the practice of sex selection.
If I remember, there was something similar taken up at Salem in Tamil Nadu which did not have a great impact. My point is that the larger issue is much more complex and cannot be addressed by such schemes alone.
May be in the case of our country’s poor, who are stuck in a vicious circle of dowry, debts and for whom bringing up girls is actually difficult in the present scenario ( of our culture) , this scheme will help prevent some deaths…but then we don’t believe that its just a problem of the poor, right?
How will this scheme help us in checking what the urban, upper and middle classes are up to?
As the news piece suggests, they are hoping at least some parents will have a change of heart and take back their daughters, but if that doesn’t happen for a lot of children who are abandoned for life, the government should realize that setting up quality institutional care is not easy by any standards. Especially when planned at such a larger scale, the govt has to have its long term plans firmly in place.
As an activist I am definitely skeptical regarding the perception this scheme might continue to propagate…that women are inferior…unwanted…a liability…and most importantly DISPENSABLE.
A policy level decision or a scheme at the national level must always focus on the larger picture or should be clear about the long term repercussions. Unless and until we are able to look at women just like men – useful, valuable, an asset and not a liability, we can’t really solve any issue arising from gender inequality.
There has to be stricter implementation of laws that punish prenatal testing for sex selective termination of pregnancy that includes parents, doctors and other aides in the crime.
Let us not get carried away by what the scheme promises just yet, because it might help the sex ratio or save some lives, but only for a while….in the long term, there is no substitute for total empowerment of women, economic and social.
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8 Responses to “Saving the girl child”
Life is a street car named Desire February 22nd, 2007 at 9:52 am #
BoHeMiAn RhApSoDy February 22nd, 2007 at 12:11 pm #
Retributions February 22nd, 2007 at 8:00 am #
Sabarish Sasidharan February 22nd, 2007 at 11:39 am #
>>As an activist I am definitely skeptical regarding the perception this scheme might continue to propagate…that women are inferior…unwanted…a liability…and most importantly DISPENSABLE.
But then that thought is better than the thoughts of foeticide and infanticide, i would argue. This scheme, if iam not mistaken, is similar to something TN had done quite a few years back (google says atleast 10 yrs back). Iam not sure what the results where, but there was a huge drive in TN then to curb female foeticide and infanticide (more so of infanticide).
Patrix February 22nd, 2007 at 7:12 pm #
I appreciate the intent behind the scheme but I don’t see it working in the long run or even addressing the core problem. Devolving the responsibility of rearing the girl child to the government does not offer any incentive to the general public to change their mentality toward the gender divide. Unless you make people responsible for their actions, they’ll continue giving birth to children and dump girls in the ‘palna’ leading to a generation of girls reared in orphanages. And we know how well government orphanages are run in regards to child development.
chandni February 23rd, 2007 at 12:51 am #
@Sabarish: I agree with you. That is why the sckepticism. Because this only offers a stop gap solution, crisis intervention if you will.
In the long term, this drive could do more harm than good, is what I am worried about. Of course I am also just guessing according to my logic, only time will tell how thos particular scheme works for or against us.
@Patrix: COuldn’t agree more…and couldn’t have said it better
Naren February 26th, 2007 at 1:28 am #
I’m totally opposed to ban on prenatal testing for sex identification.
Why shouldn’t people have a choice to know the sex of their babies just because some fools will misuse it?
Sabarish Sasidharan February 26th, 2007 at 12:35 pm #
@chandni
I agree that it should be viewed as a stop gap intervention. I hope it does not get dragged for another 50 years like the infamous reservation issue. The complete solution for this as it is with many of the social evils requires good individuals in the govt machinery. For ex Nawanshahr offers an example of a good administrator who could increase the male female ratio without resorting to cradle baby schemes and the like (once, the govt of TN even offered 15 K i think for a girl’s marriage, as a patch for the dowry menace, again a bad idea).
Sabarish Sasidharan February 26th, 2007 at 12:39 pm #
@Naren
You are right. Its a cure for the symptoms and not the real disease. The grossest misuse then is adult franchise IMO.