Actions speak louder than words

“It doesn’t matter. It is better than killing them.” – Renuka Chowdhury, the minister of state for women and child development in regards to halting aborting of female fetuses.

Its a known problem that has plagued and continues to plague India, the aborting of female fetuses. Girls have culturally been seen by most lower to middle class families in India as a burden since she is what is known as “paraya dhan” meaning she belongs to someone else. Girls have to be wedded off and hence with weddings come dowry. Since most families can not afford the costs associated with dowry they have turned to finding out the gender of the child and if its a girl aborting the baby. This act continues in horrible numbers in India despite that fact that finding out the gender is legally banned.

On our recent visit to India we were fortunate to visit a very nice orphanage in India and they told us about how people were leaving girls at their doorstep. The orphanage in-turn would take the girls in and raise them, provide them with the basic necessities and more importantly with a good education. Well, just a few hours ago my husband shared a story that stated that the Indian government will now take action in regards to these killings. That is they will be starting orphanages to house the girls and will encourage families to give the girls to the orphanage to raise rather than killing them. I don’t know how long it will be before this words will be put into effect but truly when the orphanages are started only God knows how many innocent lives will be spared.

Currently, one has to wonder when exactly these orphanages will open and it is a bit saddening to know that these steps were taken only because of rising number of discrepancy between the number of boys to girls in India: that is, “according to the latest census figures in India, the number of girls per 1,000 boys declined from 945 to 927 between 1991 and 2001.” One can merely imagine what the ratios must be today. Well, whatever may be the next step I have to say I am very happy in the baby steps the government is taking. Firstly its great that the problem is acknowledge. Now, however, we must wait to see if indeed these words will amount to true actions. I am definitely holding my breath to hear more.