Is being born a woman a bane

I belong to a state called Rajasthan, but not exactly because I was not born here. I have later acquired the citizenship as I have been married here and I wonder that is the reason I am still alive because unfortunately this state has earned a notorious reputation for “female feticide” or female infanticide. But the really sad state of affairs is that even after seven-years no action has been taken against 140 doctors and other medical service providers offering to carry out illegal sex identification ultrasounds and sex-selective abortions.

These people were caught red handed when two journalists of a news channel carried out a hidden camera investigation in the state. Isn’t it strange that not one doctor had their license canceled. On the top of it some of these who were working for the government have even been promoted. Though after some time we have a renewed interest in this topic like the recent debut show of the Aamir Khan (A renowned Bollywood Actor) focused on this issue. It also created quite a flurry of tweets on Twitter even some of the news channels had panel discussions on this topic. But soon all this will die out.

I am a journalist and have been lucky to have support from my family in all my endeavors but it gives me shudders to think who women in the Indian society are putting up with this discrimination. Though, mostly we all love to have a closed eye attitude to such problems and brush it aside as a social evil that is prevalent among the rural areas and poor section of the society. But we all know deep inside that it is not so. I have seen that my maid has five daughters and she is happy inspite of her big brood. To her they all are earning members and soon each of them will be earning a good sum to support the family.

We all know that it is we the white collared sophisticated members of the society who do not want to have the girls, why??? I asked myself if I wanted to have one the answer to be really honest was no! The reason was I would never like to see her suffer, cry, feel insecure, discriminated against, and I cannot sadly ensure thatL.

Our society still does not have a conducive environment for girl child, so all the parents who are opting for female feticide are the ones who do not want to see their daughters suffering. Please do not think that I am defending I am not! But think if they let them be born and then start a life of constant deprivation as our society still has big gender discrimination and so many things that are still considered Men Only! Or Women Only! Women in high positions in organizations can be counted on figures. So many times I am the only female journalist in an office. I have my days when I was scared to death about my safety when going to interview someone who is known as a womanizer. Sometimes I may forgo many lucrative job opportunities where I may have to put my personal safety at risk but it is only because I can afford to, but not everyone can!

So, most of the would-be- parents have these facts playing in their mind and they think why not prevent another girl to come into the world and face these problems. So, the problem of “female feticide” can only be curbed when the society as a whole is cured.