Oh! To be born and educated

--Leena Mehendale [1][1]IAS

  

The fast declining rate of female to male sex ratio as has been brought to the fore in the latest census of 2001 has created a wide- spread alarm among the government circles, the voluntary sector and academicians all over the country. There is no doubt that this kind of decline is not natural but is a result of rampant sex detection tests and female foeticides, thanks to the advances made by medical profession. For the first time, the sex ratio for children under 6 years ( 927) has gone below the All India average of  932 for all age groups. As part of my private study on crime against women, I thought it worthwhile to study the relationship between fmr and female literacy.

            To be born and to be educated are the most fundamental rights of anyone. Hence the scenario of their denial can be combined to see the pattern together. It has been argued earlier that the awareness created by education would, as a first step, lead women to go for lesser number of children and hence a more vigorous male child preference.(CWDS study). I decided to see what was the actual picture.

 

Apparently it would be expected that fmr should increase with increase in education. The actual trends are quite the reverse. Two scatter graphs plotting female literacy rates vs fmr for children below the age of 6 (fmr_6) for Orissa and Kerala in fig 1 and 2 below are typical examples of this trend. These two scatter diagrams depict very clearly, that districts having higher literacy rates among females have lower fmr_6. This is almost as if women must be denied either the right to be educated, if not, then the very right to be born. Or, is it as if better access to education which is supposed to bring modernization, liberation, economic productivity and awareness about rights of women has, as the first consequence, bound women more firmly to the patriarchic values of male–child-preference by helping them to access the required medical care without compunction?

            The enormity of the situation strikes harder by the comparison of the two states. In Orissa, the lowest female literacy rate is 18 in the district of Nabarangpur. There onward, the right to education has improved but the right to be born has declined. In, the most literate state Kerala, lowest female literacy rate is as high as 70 in Kasargod district. And yet there is a falling curve when we plot female literacy and fmr6.

 

 

 

 The reason for comparing fmr_6 rather than overall fmr is obvious. Firstly, the overall fmr may be skewed for reasons such as migration of male labourers. Secondly, if there has been a deliberate selective abortion of female foetus during the last decade, then the same will be reflected more clearly in the sex ratio for children rather than for adults.

            An even sharper comparison can be made if the figures of fmr_1, that is children below the age of 1 are available. In fact, these figures are available with the anganwadi workers and up to the district level. Beyond that level however, they are not compiled gender-wise.  The women and child development department can look into this aspect.

            Two things need to be said about the above observation. Firstly, it is not to suggest any cause and effect relationship between higher female literacy and a decline in fmr. Over the past decade, just as educational facilities have been extended to far flung areas, covering larger children population, so have the medical facilities extended especially in private sector, making foetus-sex determination and termination of pregnancy an easier, safer and quicker job. The male-child preference which had always existed has been reinforced by the availability of the medical techniques. The important point to be made here is that increase in literacy levels was not sufficient to counteract these tendencies.

 

            Sadly enough, the same inverse proportionality between fmr_6 and female literacy is  also seen in Himachal, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Haryana, Gujrat, UP, Uttaranchal, Assam, and Jharkhand.

            A scatter graph for all the 593 districts in the country is shown below. It has a V shape, so I found it more convenient to divide it into 4 zones namely lower, left, central and right zones in order to compare the situation across the country.

 

Fig. 3, 4, 5 : Relationship of fmr_6 vs. female lit. All –India, lower zone and right zone

 

 

 © Leena Mehendale, 2001. email: [email protected]

 

Chart 1 gives “at a glance” how various districts are distributed among these zones across all the states in the country

   Chart 1 :

state	districts	lower	left	central	right	na	Av fmr6	flit	mlit
Punjab	17	17					793	56	66
Haryana	19	19					820	48	67
Chandigarh	1	1					845	67	76
Delhi	9	8			1		865	64	75
Gujarat	25	16	5	2	1	x	879	48	66
Himachal	12	5		5	1	x	897	59	73
Uttaranchal	13	1	1	9	2		906	51	71
Rajasthan	32	12	17	3			909	36	62
UP	70	25	41	4			915	35	57
Maharashtra	35	9	1	17	8		917	58	74
Daman & Diu	2			1	1		925	60	78
MP	45	4	22	19			933	42	63
goa	2				2		933	68	79
J & K	14	2	10	2			937	36	57
Bihar	37	3	33	1			938	27	49
Tamil Nadu	30	4		14	12		939	58	73
Karnataka	27		7	16	4		949	50	66
Orissa	30		13	15	2		950	44	65
pondicheri	4			1	3		958	66	78
Arunachal	13		10	3			961	36	53
manipur	9		1	7	1		961	52	68
West Bengal	18		4	11	3		963	52	67
kerala	14				14		963	78	83
Andhra	23		12	9	2		964	45	62
Assam	23		5	17	1		964	47	60
a&n island	2			1	1		965	65	76
Jharkhand	18		15	3			966	32	56
mizoram	8		1		7		971	72	77
D & N Haveli	1		1				973	35	61
lakshadweep	1				1		974	69	80
Chhatisgarh	16		5	11			975	44	65
meghalaya	7		2	4	1		975	48	53
Nagaland	8		2	3	3		975	53	62
tripura	4			3	1		975	57	71
sikkim	4			4			986	52	66
All India	593	126	208	185	72	2	927	46	64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is worthwhile to take a detailed look at these zones. How do various societies recognize, respect and uphold the right to be born and to be educated and who deny them and how?

 

 

Lower zone:

These are 126 districts having fmr_6 lower than 900 (see chart 2). Out of these 34 are far worse than the remaining as their fmr_6 ratio are less than 820. These are: all 17 from Punjab, 13 from Haryana 3 from Gujrat and 1 from J & K

 

 Chart 2:

Those	126		district		with		fmr6	<	900
state	district	flit	fmr6	state	district	flit	fmr6	state	district	flit	fmr6
Bihar	Saharsa	20	900	Hary	Rewari	53	814	Raja	Jaisalmer	25	867
Bihar	Sitamarhi	21	896	Hary	Rohtak	54	796	Raja	Sawai Madhopur	29	900
Bihar	Darbhanga	25	885	Hary	Yamuna nagar	56	807	Raja	Dhaulpur	33	859
Chand	Chandigarh	67	845	Hary	Panchkula	59	837	Raja	Dausa	35	900
Delhi	North East	59	867	Hary	Ambala	60	784	Raja	Bharatpur	35	875
Delhi	North west	62	854	Hima	Solan	58	900	Raja	Alwar	36	888
Delhi	South	63	886	Hima	Bilaspur	62	884	Raja	Karauli	36	876
Delhi	South West	65	845	Hima	Una	65	839	Raja	Hanumangarh	44	873
Delhi	North	65	870	Hima	Kangra	66	836	Raja	Ganganagar	44	852
Delhi	New Delhi	65	882	Hima	Hamirpur	68	864	Raja	Jaipur	47	897
Delhi	West	68	858	J&K	Kathua	46	851	Raja	Sikar	47	882
Delhi	East	68	868	J&K	Jammu	61	816	Raja	Jhunjhunun	50	867
Gujar	Patan	39	862	Maha	Bid	47	898	Tamil	Dharmapuri	43	878
Gujar	Surendranagar	41	888	Maha	Aurangabad	52	884	Tamil	Salem	50	826
Gujar	Sabar Kantha	45	878	Maha	Solapur	52	897	Tamil	Namakkal	52	896
Gujar	Bhavnagar	46	886	Maha	Jalgaon	56	867	Tamil	Theni	55	893
Gujar	Jamnagar	47	894	Maha	Ahmadnagar	56	890	UP	Budaun	20	887
Gujar	Rajkot	48	844	Maha	Sangli	59	850	UP	Shahjahanpur	28	866
Gujar	Junagadh	49	898	Maha	Kolhapur	59	859	UP	Bareilly	28	899
Gujar	Kheda	50	880	Maha	Satara	61	884	UP	S Ravidas Nagar	31	900
Gujar	Amreli	50	894	Maha	Mumbai	74	898	UP	Mahoba	32	896
Gujar	Porbandar	51	897	MP	Morena	38	829	UP	Etah	33	891
Gujar	Vadodara	54	875	MP	Bhind	46	829	UP	Bulandshahar	35	868
Gujar	Anand	55	874	MP	Gwalior	48	849	UP	Mathura	35	872
Gujar	Mahesana	56	798	MP	Datia	52	875	UP	Aligarh	36	886
Gujar	Gandhinagar	57	816	Punj	Mansa	39	779	UP	Hathras	38	881
Gujar	Surat	58	872	Punj	Muktsar	44	807	UP	Muzaffarnagar	40	857
Gujar	Ahmadabad	63	814	Punj	Firozpur	45	819	UP	Agra	40	849
Hary	Fatehabad	39	830	Punj	Sangrur	47	784	UP	Mau	41	897
Hary	Gurgaon	39	863	Punj	Bathinda	48	779	UP	Baghpat	42	847
Hary	Kaithal	41	789	Punj	Faridkot	50	805	UP	Saharanpur	42	894
Hary	Jind	42	818	Punj	Moga	52	819	UP	Jalaun	42	885
Hary	Sirsa	43	818	Punj	Amritsar	54	783	UP	Mainpuri	43	883
Hary	Hisar	44	830	Punj	Patiala	56	770	UP	Jhansi	43	886
Hary	Bhiwani	45	838	Punj	Gurdaspur	59	775	UP	Gautam B N	45	855
Hary	Mahendragarh	47	814	Punj	Kapurthala	60	775	UP	Kanpur Dehat	45	899
Hary	Faridabad	47	856	Punj	Fatehgarh Sahib	61	754	UP	Meerut	45	854
Hary	Panipat	49	807	Punj	Nawanshahr	62	810	UP	Etawah	48	895
Hary	Karnal	50	808	Punj	Rupnagar	63	791	UP	Auraiya	49	898
Hary	Jhajjar	51	805	Punj	Jalandhar	65	797	UP	Ghaziabad	49	851
Hary	Kurukshetra	53	770	Punj	Hoshiarpur	67	810	UP	Kanpur Nagar	63	865
Hary	Sonipat	53	783	Punj	Ludhiana	64	814	Uttara	Hardwar	43	852

 

 

  left zone:

Central zone:

right zone :

 Chart 3 :

Those	20	dist	with	Flit	< 20
state	district	flit	fmr6	state	district	flit	fmr6
Bihar	Kishanganj	14	941	Orissa	Malkangiri	18	990
UP	Shrawasti	15	941	UP	Bahraich	18	968
Jharkhand	Pakaur	16	968	Bihar	Katihar	19	966
Bihar	Supaul	17	921	Bihar	Purnia	19	968
Bihar	Araria	17	967	Bihar	Saharsa	20	900
Orissa	Nabarangapur	17	1002	Bihar	Purba Champaran	20	934
Chhatisgarh	Dantewada	17	1014	Bihar	Pash Champaran	20	942
UP	Balrampur	17	961	MP	Jhabua	20	970
Bihar	Madhepura	18	918	Orissa	Rayagada	20	983
Jharkhand	Garhwa	18	960	UP	Budaun	20	887

 

The best districts are, Mokokchu-(N), Serchhip-(M), Kasargod-(K), Aizwal-(M),

Mallapur-(K), Idukki-(K), Champhai-(M), Wokha-(N), Nilgiris-(T), Karaikal-(P), and Lakshadweep-(L) which have a better fmr_6 and better female literacy.

Here is a list of all the 31 districts having favourable literacy and fmr6.

 Chart 4 :

Those	31 dist	with	fmr6	> 960	Flit	>	60%
state	district	flit	fmr6	state	district	flit	fmr6
Nagaland	Mokokchung	74	1004	Mizoram	Champhai	74	973
Nagaland	Wokha	66	999	Kerala	Idukki	75	970
Mizoram	Serchhip	79	991	Kerala	Pathanamthitta	85	968
Tamil Nadu	The Nilgiris	66	990	A & N Islands	Andamans	66	968
Kerala	Kasaragod	70	984	Tamil Nadu	Chennai	69	968
Tripura	West Tripura	61	983	Tamil Nadu	Kanniyakumari	77	967
Pondicherry *	Karaikal	66	981	Kerala	Kozhikode	79	966
Nagaland	Dimapur	62	981	Mizoram	Kolasib	75	966
Meghalaya	East Khasi Hills	63	979	Manipur	Imphal West	64	966
Kerala	Malappuram	74	979	Mizoram	Saiha	64	965
Mizoram	Aizawl	82	978	Mizoram	Lunglei	67	964
Andhra	West Godavari	62	977	Kerala	Palakkad	71	963
Karnataka	Kodagu	64	977	Kerala	Alappuzha	82	962
Lakshadweep	Lakshadweep	69	974	Tamil Nadu	Kancheepuram	62	961
Tamil Nadu	Thiruvarur	61	974	West Bengal	North 24 Parganas	64	961
				Kerala	Kollam	79	961

 

 

After the enactment of PNDT Act in 1994 various state governments have yet to declare an Appropriate Authority in every district who can register the ultrasound and abortion clinics and monitor if any doctor is conducting pre- natal sex- selection tests and carrying out female foetus abortions. Only in a few isolated cases medical professionals have been taken to task for performing these tests and abortions. Newspapers carrying out open advertisements are not taken to task by the government. Supreme Court, in one PIL matter had to “order” the government to appoint appropriate authorities. More importantly, the present PNDT Act talks of banning only such techniques which were then prevalent. With the advances in science, new techniques keep coming and often a legalistic plea is taken that the PNDT Act cannot deal with them. Perhaps the Act can be renamed as sex imbalance prevention Act so that even future methods that will come with newer inventions can be dealt with effectively.

This also shows that merely making enactments is not sufficient. Merely appointing personnel will also not be sufficient. The medical professionals themselves have to shed their “business outlook” and act in a more responsible manner.

 

Despite the enormous dangers of such an adverse male- female ratio, and the fact that medical professionals are the first to understand it, despite the oath that every doctor takes to protect the human life, despite all the much tomtomed Ethical Committees and Medical Associations, we have yet to see an ultrasound clinic or a gynecologist who refrains from being a party to this “medically introduced” phenomenon, and takes pride in not being instrumental to it and has courage to openly display her/his pride by putting up a board outside the clinic. They have yet to publicly denounce their co-professionals who adopt these practices. Any such honest display will achieve far better results than all the seminars and stage talks, so often resorted to by IMA and such other bodies. Instead, the gynaecologists are busy telling people that abortion per say, is not prohibited or punishable, so they have no role to play in any plan of action.

 

136 districts have F-literacy lower than 40%, out of which 23 have fmr6 lower than 40 and other 43 have fmr6 lower than 930.

Chart 5 :

Those	27	dist	with	fmr6	< 900	flit	< 40
state	district	flit	fmr6	state	district	flit	fmr6
Bihar	Saharsa	20	900	UP	Bulandshahar	35	868
UP	Budaun	20	887	UP	Mathura	35	872
Bihar	Sitamarhi	21	896	Rajasthan	Alwar	36	888
Bihar	Darbhanga	25	885	UP	Aligarh	36	886
Rajasthan	Jaisalmer	25	867	Rajasthan	Karauli	36	876
UP	Shahjahanpur	28	866	MP	Morena	38	829
UP	Bareilly	28	899	UP	Hathras	38	881
Rajasthan	Sawai Madhopur	29	900	Haryana	Fatehabad	39	830
UP	Sant Ravidas Nagar	31	900	Gujarat	Patan	39	862
UP	Mahoba	32	896	Haryana	Gurgaon	39	863
UP	Etah	33	891	Punjab	Mansa	39	779
Rajasthan	Dhaulpur	33	859	UP	Muzaffarnagar	40	857
Rajasthan	Dausa	35	900	UP	Agra	40	849
Rajasthan	Bharatpur	35	875

 

 

Recently, an attempt has been made to involve religious leaders. No religious leader has yet started to persue the subjects of either lower fmr or lower female literacy as a personal mission.

 

An All-India map showing district wise distribution shows that 3 trends are running throught the country: In the west, with Punjab as epicenter we get a spread of districts where fmr6 is lower than 900, or 910 (this gives contiguity in the map) or 930. These are Punjab, Hartna, chandigarh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujrat Maharashtra, J&K and HP. On east, with Bihar as epicenter we get a spread of  districts with female literacy below 20 or 30 or 40. These districts are in Bihar, UP, MP, North- Eastern states,  Orissa, Andhra. In the south we have a spread of districts from Kerala, Karnatak and Tamil nadu where both the situations are better except in the Salem- Madurai belt of Tamilnadu. In UP, Jharkhand and Bihar if a district is not in the low literacy zone, it is invariably in the low fmr6 zone and vice- versa.

All this only shows that women activism has a long way to go.

The literacy –wise distribution of  593 districts is given below.

                       

Chart 6 :

flit	fmr6	< 800	< 850	< 900	< 930	< 950	> 950	tot
< 20	20			2	2	4	12	20
< 30	79			6	16	16	41	79
< 40	136	1	3	15	25	39	53	136
< 50	144	3	15	28	19	21	58	144
< 60	117	9	7	14	22	25	40	117
> 60	95	3	9	11	14	11	47	95
na	2							2
total	593	16	34	76	98	116	251	593

 

 

 

 

 

[Synopsis: The census of 2001 has brought out that for the first time, the sex ratio for children under 6 years ( 927) has gone below the sex- ratio for total population ( 932); this being largely the effect of female foeticide. Similarly, despite all efforts, the female literacy has remained low in some states. A possibility was earlier predicted in a study by CWDS that we may find more literate districts showing worse skewed sex ratios.This article aims at statistical analysis and mapping of those districts where either the right to be born or the right to be educated or both are denied to the girl child. Is there a correlation? Some of the observations are: (1) Fateh- garh Saheb district in Punjab has lowest fmr_6, namely 754. All districts of Punjab, and  two- thirds of haryana  have fmr_6 lower than 820. (2) With Punjab as epicenter, there is a continuous stretch  encompassing Haryana, Delhi, Gujrat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and western UP that needs to be watched out for  low fmr. Policies like gender –desegregated census analysis of children below 1 year, more frequent census, village –wise analysis and stricter registration of ultra- sonography clinics need to be persued. (3) In the east, with Bihar as epicenter, there is a continuous stretch encompassing the districts of Bihar, Jkharkhand, eastern UP, Assam, Orissa, MP, and Andhra where female literacy is low and the efforts for girl-child education need to be strengthened. (4) Many states show a typical trend wherein the districts with higher female literacy have lower fmr_6. This points to a need for paradigm shift in our educational value system.]

 

Chart 7 :

 

Those	additional	43	dist.	Flit < 40	fmr6	< 930
state	district	flit	fmr6	state	district	flit	fmr6
Bihar	Supaul	17	921	Rajasthan	Nagaur	33	920
Bihar	Madhepura	18	918	Bihar	Jehanabad	33	909
Rajasthan	Jalor	22	924	MP	Shivpuri	33	909
Bihar	Sheohar	22	919	MP	Tikamgarh	33	919
UP	Rampur	22	922	Bihar	Buxar	33	926
Rajasthan	Tonk	27	922	UP	Hamirpur	33	906
UP	Moradabad	27	911	Rajasthan	Jhalawar	33	929
Gujarat	Banas Kantha	28	907	Rajasthan	Barmer	34	922
Bihar	Muzaffarpur	28	925	Rajasthan	Bikaner	34	915
UP	Jyotiba Phule Nagar	28	914	Rajasthan	Baran	34	918
UP	Sitapur	28	926	MP	Guna	35	929
UP	Sant Kabir Nagar	29	923	UP	Unnao	35	915
UP	Banda	30	912	UP	Jaunpur	36	927
Bihar	Siwan	30	927	UP	Chandauli	37	924
Rajasthan	Sirohi	30	918	J&K	Rajauri	37	902
Rajasthan	Pali	30	927	UP	Bijnor	38	902
UP	Hardoi	30	908	UP	Allahabad	38	920
Rajasthan	Chittaurgarh	30	927	Bihar	Munger	39	915
Rajasthan	Bundi	31	908	MP	Rewa	39	926
Rajasthan	Jodhpur	32	920	UP	Varanasi	40	915
MP	Chhatarpur	32	920	UP	Chitrakoot	40	926
UP	Mirzapur	32	930