Sexless Ratio

Hi Everyone,

"You teach a boy you teach an individual, but you teach a girl and you teach an entire family". I quite agree with this statement and with this beautiful quote I would like to wish a very happy Women's Day to all the women across the world.

I briefly touched upon the topic of crime against women in one of my previous post. There is a very interconnected topic - the Gender Ratio, or also popularly known as the Sex Ratio. It is the ratio of number of females to the number of males in a given region. For most of the developed countries this ratio is greater than one, which is considered favourable for the growth of the population. It should be near to 1 but not too much greater than 1. In 2001 the sex ratio for India was 0.933 and in 2011 it was 0.94. Thats a very slow growth and shows the actual effectiveness of the various programs run by the government for women safety and empowerment.

In India there are only two states which have a sex ratio greater than 1- Kerala and Pondicherry. My kudos to the state government, they have done what other states have not been able to done.

I did some research on why Women's Day is celebrated. I am quoting from the UN website, "On 8 March 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter work hours, better pay, voting rights and an end to child labour. They adopted the slogan "Bread and Roses", with bread symbolizing economic security and roses a better quality of life". Since then Women's Day always has a slogan associated with it and this years slogan is "A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women".

But here the question is how much benefit is actually achieved by celebrating these days? How much difference do they make? Every year I hear government allotting funds, making policies for the betterment of women of this nation but are these policies actually and effectively executed? The root cause is low sex ratio which is something that should be addressed everytime. Let me elaborate on the domino effect of the low sex ratio:

1. Female infanticide is the main reasons for low sex ratio. Because of this mothers get so scared that they themselves don't want female child. (this also leads to neglect in the upbringing of a female child)
2. When a female suffers the discrimination, ironically enough it is carried forward to the next generation causing other women related issues ("The sins of our fathers will be passed down from generation to generations", a very apt quote for this case)
3. Low sex ratio means lesser number of females in a given population which are also a reason for incidences of rape, sexual assault etc. 

One can easily pin down almost all of the current women related issues to the issue of low sex ratio. Its high time that this government and people wake up to the reality and start doing something about it. Some ways in which it can be easily done are: 

1. Please, an appeal to all the families, stop discrimination between a boy and a girl child whenever you see one (I don't have to go far when it happens in my own extended family, but I am fighting against it)
2. Mentor a female child if you can (I have done for two years and the feeling is awesome and the rewards for the child are great)
3. Stop any violence against women if you see (If you stand up to these bullies they will never come back, its in their nature)

There is nothing wrong in celebrating a Women's Day, but considering the main reason why it is celebrated every year I would be more that happy if the need for celebration is eliminated all together and is celebrated only for achievements. We really don't want the sex ratio to become a sexless ratio. 

Lets be a part of the SOLUTION and help Women flourish in the way they should other wise this problem is going to get bigger only and we will be part of the PROBLEM

Thanks,
Genie Signing off.