Acharya Tulsi
There is a Chinese proverb: if a man is educated then a certain section of people get educated but if a woman is educated then the entire generation gets educated. This kind of ideas also belonged to the second Acharya of Dharma Sangha Shri Bhorimal. He was in favour of providing deep religious values to women. According to his perspective a woman with such values could’ become ‘a support for the entire family. The revolutionary leader-of Soviet Russia Lenin also held dear this perspective that without developing social and psychological condition of women the creation of socialism would not be possible. At present in our country the political system is following the ideals of socialism. To establish and develop socialism slogans are being uttered and new plans are being made. But as long as women are not incorporated in such endeavours the ideals of socialism would not be a part and parcel of life breaking the shackles of words.
In India there is a dual yardstick of providing rights concerning men and women. In our constitution the same rights are available to the women that a man entertains. But in practical life women are restricted to enjoy all the rights. Generally the work place has also got divisions for men and women. A woman takes care of her family and a man works outside his home. In fact meeting household chores is also not an easy task. But when she was deprived of social rights then she stepped outside home. The wise men accepted this step taken by them but the orthodox people could not tolerate it. They started saying, ‘A woman should not cross her limit. She is a housewife, she doesn’t have the prerogative to rule, should not do whatsoever she feels like. A woman can remain safe only if she is dictated by a man.' The arguments regarding family and society in this context influenced woman’s thoughts and actions. The concept of equal effort and equal remuneration, in spite of being principally accepted, women still get less remuneration compared to man. A woman is deprived of such opportunities of development just for being a woman. In many families daughters are not brought up like sons. The most glaring example of it is the increasing rate of killing of female embryos.
There was a time when human beings were not free to get a child of their own choice. What kind of a child would it be‘? How would the child be? No one could interfere in all these affairs. The time since test-tube baby came into existence some new discoveries are being made in the science of procreation. In one of such discoveries the gender of the baby in womb can also be ascertained. The method that is used to ascertain gender is called Amino Synthesis. The purpose behind the development of this method was to examine defects in the baby in womb. This examination would help to test deformities, mental disbalance, and hereditary diseases and to treat such shortcomings were given the first priority. But this point took the back seat and the main aim of this method was to ascertain the gender of the child. The doctors after having examined the mother’s womb by ‘Amino Synthesis’ can tell whether the baby in the womb is a boy or a girl. If a girl is found then immediately the baby is aborted. According to a survey made in Mumbai ninety-nine percent babies that are aborted are girls. This is one of the news and a modem ways of exploiting women. The sole responsibility of aborting female embryo goes to the mother.
An Indian mother’s ideal lies in the fact that she takes care of her deformed and diseased child till her last breath. If her child is neglected by anyone in the family she gets deeply hurt. In this country only a mother aborts her child with her own consent. Why? It is not because of its being handicapped, mentally disbalanced or sick. It is done because the gender is of a girl. Has the steam of her motherhood dried up? The increasing rate of killing female embryos on the one hand is revealing human brutality and on the other the decrease in the number of women is creating the risk of disbalance in human environment.
The killing of female embryos is an insult to the entire female race and an effort to violate the balance of nature that never gets noticed by people. To prevent this inhuman and lethal trait religious, social and political institutions must get united and run campaign against it. It has been declared that in Maharashtra all the techniques that determine the gender of a baby in the womb have been legally banned.
The Health Minister of Maharashtra had presented a bill concerning it. After having implemented this law, killing female embryos there has been abruptly stopped. Now it needs to be seen how many states follow Maharashtra in running this inhuman endeavour.
After implementing this law killing female embryos can be stopped, is to shut one’s eyes completely over reality. It is simply so, because as long as people’s perspective is not changed, such mishaps would keep on happening illegally. The country that is heading forward to enter twentyfirst centuries doesn’t this deformed mental state dragging it back to eighteenth century?
