Re: [nukkad] Infanticide

["Mahesh chandra Gupta" <>]

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Dear Aditi,
thanks for your response. I am glad you have not responded in anger. Let me
offer some clarification.

1. My mail was meant not to generate emotional side-taking, but rather
academic debate based on known facts.

2. In that vein, none can dispute the correctness of the statement in par 8
reproduced by you in your response. To put it in more scientific terms, the
official aim in India was, and correctly so, to reduce the NRR [net
reproduction rate] to 1.0 by 2006. Actual achievemnt as in 1990 was 1.5. NRR
1.0 approximates two child norm and means as many females born as die. Thus
this means a replacement level of population groth, ie., population is
stable as against increasing population at present. All this is essentially
echoeing in scientific terms the fact simply stated in para 8.

3. To answer your query as to why even people from well to do families,
including doctors, resort to female infanticide, the reasons are as follows.
One, some of them may consciously do so for whatever reasons. Two, others
may be doing so not out of conscious, reasoned decision, but because they
are following the path preset by pooled collective consciousness of the
society, which, in turn, is the outcome of complex, very complex, multiple
factors. I had given example of lemmings, weevil and fish. It is quite
possible some as yet little understood mechanisms interplay to cause
phenomenona like world wars, epidemics and female foeticde etc which result
in decimation of exploding population.

4. I totally share with you the anguish caused by the statement "I think
that the girls r stupid n brainless creatures." made by some one earlier in
this list and referred in your response. But I would simply ignore it. It
simply shows immaturity and ignorance of the person. I am a bit ashamed to
admit that I too had such views 40 years ago, when I was in medical college.
It has taken 4 decades for me to revise my views. The person who wrote the
above was most likely a man in his twenties. Such views are born out of the
fear of the unknown. Since men find it difficult to understand women, they
tend to berate them. This is akin to the 'grapes are sour " phenomenon. The
braininess of women is proven every year globally when toppers in exams are
girls. Even otherwise, women are known to use both halves of brains, while
men operate predominantly with only the left brain.

5. I am a strong, very strong supporter of women's causes. We have forgotten
Gandhiji. The real answer to the problem of female foeticide lies in
following Gandhi. He propagated brahmacharya, stating that one should
cohabit only for progeny. Suppose that is implemented. It would result in
equal no. of male and female children, who would all live happily and
healthily. [it is a fact borne out by scientific studies that average Indian
woman does not want to produce too many children]. The problem arises when
we cohabit for sensual pleasure, this leads to unwanted pregnancy, and the
forces in nature I alluded to earlier determine that the child births
averted are those of girls, because that is in the interest of survival of
the species.

Hope I have been able to clarify.
Regards.

MC Gupta
June 26
----- Original Message -----
From: "Aditi Shah" <adi60@hotmail.com>
To: <healthlaw@now-india.net.in>; <homik@primenet.com>
Cc: <nukkad-list@mumbai-central.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2001 4:44 PM
Subject: Re: [nukkad] Infanticide


>
>
> >8. It is a fact that india is overpopulated and that only women bear
> >children. Hence it is axiomatic truth that there is direct relation
between
> >the number of female children born and the population birth rate. In
other
> >words, more the number of female births averted, less is the rate of
growth
> >of population.
> >
> Unfortunately this isnt the reason for female infanticide. That warrants
> from discrimination, which is at the root of several problems that plague
> our society. I have seen this discrimination amongst well-educated people
in
> Bombay who were definitely well-off to the point where the reasons were
not
> financial.


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