SANGLI SISTERS THEN AND NOW

     I had always known Sangli as the Chess Town, the place from where the Khadilkar sisters hailed. Rohini Khadilkar was the youngest of the three Khadilkar sisters (Vasanti and Jayshree the other two). All of them dominated Indian Women’s chess championship for a decade.  Khadilkar became National Women’s Chess in 1976 at the age of 13 and was the first to win that championship in three consecutive years. She has held the title on five occasions. Khadilkar became the first female to compete in the Indian Men’s Championship when she participated in 1976. Her involvement in a male competition caused a furore that necessitated a successful appeal to the High Court and caused the World Chess Federation president, Max Euwe, to rule that women cannot be barred from national and international championships.  In 1981, Khadilkar also became the Asian Women’s Chess Championship when the competition was held at Hyderabad. She was unbeaten in that competition and scored 11.5 out of a possible 12 points, which also made her International Woman Master (IWM).  In the same year, she became an International Chess Masterand in November 1983 she again won the Asian Women’s title when the competition was held at Kualalumpur, Malaysia.

     Today I identify Sangli as the place where nineteen aborted female fetuses have been found. Sisters of a different kind from the same town, who were never born.  I thought such news was only found in the most backward regions of the world. The fact that this has been reported from Sangli , a bustling town in Maharastra, a state with high literacy and inclusive society,  is indeed a matter of concern.  Maharastra assures free education to the girl child as also implements all  national level schemes for girl child with due diligence. In a bid to achieve its objective of improving the skewed girl child ratio in Maharashtra, the state government relaunched its “Majhi Kanya Bhagyashri” scheme in 2015.The scheme was relaunched at all district headquarters with the guardian ministers handing over certificates of encouragement to couples, who  registered under the scheme. However, it has failed to gain momentum in its implementation largely due to lack of public awareness.

     Female foeticide has been linked to the arrival of affordable ultrasound technology and its widespread adoption in India, in the early 1990s. Obstetric ultrasonography, either transvaginally or transabdominally, checks for various markers of fetal sex. It can be performed at or after week 12 of pregnancy. At this point,  75% of fetal sexes can be correctly determined, according to a 2001 study. Accuracy for males is approximately 50% and for females almost 100%. When performed after week 13 of pregnancy, ultrasonography gives an accurate result in almost 100% of cases.

     In India this most brutal form of killing females takes place regularly, even before they have the opportunity to be born. Female feticide--the selective abortion of female fetuses--is killing upwards of one million females in India annually with far-ranging and tragic consequences. In some areas, the sex ratio of females to males has dropped to less than 8000:1000. Females not only face inequality in this culture, they are even denied the right to be born.

      Why do so many families selectively abort baby daughters? In a word: economics. Aborting female fetuses is both practical and socially acceptable in India (as a helpless option). Female feticide is driven by many factors, but primarily by the prospect of having to pay a dowry to the future bridegroom of a daughter. While sons offer security to their families in old age and can perform the rites for the souls of deceased parents and ancestors, daughters are perceived as a social and economic burden. Prenatal sex detection technologies have been misused, allowing the selective abortions of female offspring to proliferate. While abortion is legal in India, it is a crime to abort a pregnancy solely because the fetus is female. Strict laws and penalties are in place for violators. These laws, however, have not stemmed the tide of this abhorrent practice as seen in the recent case. There are many such places where abortion of female fetus is a norm rather than exception. Only education can resolve this issue and offset traditional practices. Real challenge before the society is not to introduce new and need identified schemes but, their implementation & promulgation on ground which can only be done by the educated classes to uplift the masses. Time has come for us to commit ourselves to the cause and work for results rather than doing lip service and see to it that the girl child is happily accepted as the most important part of society.