Friday, April 29, 2011

Sex ratio, patriarchy and ethics


1.
·         Since 1961, there has been a steady decline in child sex ratio
o   1961- 976  2011-914
·         2011 census indicates that many districts have a sex ratio of elss than 850
·         Another surprising finding is that sex ratio in urban areas is lower than that in rural areas
·         This clearly indicates that prosperity and education are ahving no impact on the value systems of people
·         Medical technology which were aimed towards detecting genetic disorders are being  misused for sex selective abortions
·         The skewed sex ratio in 1991 census led to the enactment of pre natal diagnostic techniques act 1994
·         But it failed to arrest the slide in ratio because of collusion between people and medical fraternity
·         The root cause for this trend lies in the patriarchal society which is supported by religious customs and beliefs
·         It is this that leads to dastardly acts like
o   Female infanticides
o   Dowry
o   Sati
·         There has been an ethical collapse in our society
·         For long government has tried tackling the issue from a medico legal angle
·         But this problem needs to be looked at from socio cultural angle
·         The only way to arrest this trend is to replace patriarchal society with an egalitarian society

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