For The Girl Child

I have attended a wedding recently that prompted me to write this post. There seems to be a lot of focus and discussion around female foeticide and female child sex ratio, thanks to the media, social workers and talk shows. Now, what has the wedding got to do with this? The father of the brides is a family friend of ours. The reason why I mentioned ‘brides’ is because he got two of his daughters married on the same day. Now this man, the father of the bride, has six daughters and a son as his children! Yes that’s right, six daughters! Of course the son is the youngest. He got five of his daughters married. That’s a huge responsibility! Bringing up seven children is anything but easy. It needs a lot of patience, hard work and not to mention, a sound financial background. He belongs to a family of farmers and like my dad he had moved to Hyderabad to earn a living when he was young.

When his wife gave birth to their fourth daughter, my mom had gone to see her in the hospital. As usual the so called relatives were almost mourning the birth of the girl child. My mom just looked at her and smiled and said “another baby girl?” to which she smiled back and said “yes, but that’s ok. I will not give up. Let’s see who wins, the will of God or my determination.” My mother was moved by her statement, she knew what it was to be in her position, because she has four daughters herself.

What I want to point out is the fact that the couple chose to give birth to all six girls. Probably they did not even bother to go for a sex determination test. They had a desire to have a son which is not wrong. Human beings have desires and they have every right to fulfill it. But at no cost should they force their desires on others. At the same time we have no right to sacrifice lives in order to get what we desire. They could have gone for an abortion like how other couples do, or rather are forced to do. But they did not. They brought up all six daughters well and none of their education was compromised. I am talking about a couple with limited financial resources. The husband had probably studied just schooling and the wife is uneducated. This makes me think that education in the form of degrees will not ensure that we will bring up a good society of people. There’s more to it than mere bookish knowledge and social awareness. Of course these are the prerequisites, but they alone cannot ensure the desired results. It is a very personal choice that one needs to make, a choice to do what is right. I salute the couple for having the courage to do the right thing without succumbing to the circumstances and other negative effects around them.