LET MATA DI DAWN TO EARTH
Jai Mata Di! Jai Krishna Kanheya! These are common rhythmic calls by the devotees in the temple. It is quite natural. But one has to think twice or thrice while listening to it from the mouth of an employee with the doctor in the test laboratory carrying out tests to detect gender of foetus in mother’s womb. These become symbolic terms (Verbal Test Reports) stand for girl and boy respectively. Similarly, when the lab attendant asks to collect report on Monday the result is explicit. The term Monday starts with the letter M which stands for Male. And if he says to collect report on Friday, the result is Female. More interestingly these two days never come when the report is collected in black and white.
Female foeticide is rampant in most of the northern parts of India. The states like Punjab and Haryana are worst affected. There are many reasons behind it. Male dominated Indian society has put much importance on male child than a female one. Some of the reasons are: A male child can be of great help at the old age. He can look after outside works and therefore more dependable than the daughter. Secondly, society beliefs in tradition that soul can get solace after death if all rituals are performed by the son. Thirdly, families having no male child are regarded heirless and thus they go to hell after death. But the reason from economical point of view stands merit with all other reasons. Many people fear either their daughter will demand a share of the ancestral property which can either be used by her for residential purpose, if not; she would sold it out to any other person. Both of these are detrimental to their basic interest. Most of the people feel insulted when daughter and son-in-law reside in their locality. But this is not the main reason. The matter becomes worst when daughter sells out her share especially landed properties to the unknown and leaves the village. This is a huge loss to the parents. Their property falls in the hand of an unknown due to their daughter. This creates a lot of problem in the later years. The ancestral property slips from the hands easily, whose impact lasts from generation to generation. The entire blame comes on the head of the daughter and she is considered as inauspicious to the family. In order to get rid of it most of the people prefer female foeticide.
People perform Devi Pooja in various forms in different parts of the country. They regard premature girl child as the incarnation of deity. During Navaratri, women call odd numbers, starting from 5 girl children, wash their feats and feed them with Puri (Prepared from wheat flour), Chole (Bengal Gram) which is later called Prasad of Devi. After performing Pooja they offer new items such as bindi, handkerchiefs, scents etc. for their use.
There are a numerous laws world wide to curb female foeticide. But mere making laws to eradicate it completely from the society yields less fruit. Each and every individual is responsible for it. Instead of eradicating this evil practice from the mind they abet it and nourish it surreptitiously in their mind. The fear of society and blind beliefs has gripped people who are being compelled to adopt female foeticide leaving behind all rules and regulations enforceable in the land.
The world has acclaimed achievements of women in many spheres. Even in some cases women has excelled man. If it has already been proved then why we adopt dual concepts in our mind, one for male and another for female. This is absolutely against the Law of Nature. Nature has given everything equal to all. We have no right to treat differently to others. The main hypotheses reveal are: (a) All are equal before Nature, (b) Nature has authority to give everything equal to all and (c) therefore, man being a creature of Nature has no authority to differentiate himself from others and vice versa. It is pertinent to mention that man is nurtured by the Nature and hence is in no way authorized to differentiate amongst them. Therefore, it seems to be illogical to go for female foeticide which interrupts completion of biological circle created by the Nature. Instead, we should let Mata Di (Deity) dawn to earth for wellbeing of the entire mankind.