Satyamev Jayate - Jinhe Desh Ki Fikr Hai

Mumkin Hai

 
  
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Agents of Change

State of Change

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Can you imagine a country with no women? That thought might seem distant, but the numbers tell another story. The Census reveals the chilling fact of a diminishing number of girls being born in India. In 1981, there were 967 girls born for every 1,000 boys, but by 2011 this had fallen to a shameful 914 girls. In 2005, the sex ratio of a village in Punjab had dipped as low as 775 girls to 1,000 boys. The reason? Over 10 lakh girls are aborted every year in India. These numbers are a mirror to society's deep-seated prejudice against the girl child.

Satyamev Jayate highlighted the issue of female foeticide in its very first episode in 2012. It showed the reality that the act of pre-natal gender detection followed by foeticide cuts across class and cities. We saw how mothers who want to keep their female child alive face torture and abuse by the hands of their families. We saw how doctors blatantly flout the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Determination Techniques (PCPNDT) Act for monetary gains. At the end of the episode, Mr. Aamir Khan urged the nation to become the agents of change. He said, “Will Mother India be a mother to only sons and not daughters? Or will we change and let our daughter survive?”

This question has been answered by Solapur city in Maharashtra. Roopali Nimbole, a resident of Solapur, changed her mind about having a daughter after watching the show. “Initially my in-laws and others wanted a baby boy. Then my husband showed me the episode of Satyamev Jayate on his mobile phone. It inspired me,” she says. “Today we have a baby girl. We love her a lot and so does everyone in the family.” Her husband Shrinivas Nimbole believes, “Sex-selective abortion is a big crime. We must fight it.”

Others in the area have adopted girls and are proud of it. Bhojraj and Rekha Niranjan are one such couple. Many people were baffled as to why they chose to adopt a girl instead of a boy, but they were steadfast. “When I wanted to adopt a baby girl, my mother-in-law was very supportive,” says Rekha. “Satyamev Jayate has given dignity and pride to the girl child.”

Not only did the episode inspire people to give birth to girls or adopt them, it also strengthened the Maharashtra government’s resolve to take action. Suresh Shetty, the Health Minister of Maharashtra, was appalled by the low numbers of girls being born in the state. The sex ratio stood at 894 girls against the national average of 914. “That's when we decided that we have to crack down,” he said. “We have made it compulsory for all the sonography machine manufacturers to get registered with the government and they have to give us the details of how many machines have been sold and to whom. We tried to inspect every centre in all the districts where these machines were being blatantly misused.”

The change is visible not in just some areas of Maharashtra. Because of the efforts of the people and the administration, the impact is showing in numbers as well. A total of 797 cases were registered against offenders of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) act between 2011–2013. Not only that, the sex-ratio has seen a steady rise too. “By October 2013, the sex ratio rose to 940 girls for every 1000 boys and I'm sure this is only going to increase,” says a hopeful Mr. Shetty.

  
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