While the demographic statistics of India project a are mobile abortion vans roaming in rural India and female foeticide
is on the steady surge in figures, it also indicates an alarming decline in the gender ratio. The danger bulb is flashing - female of our species is vanishing! Unless quick remedial action is taken to restore a health gender ratio, depraved society is fast emerging. Cannes winner, Manish Jha’s recently released Matrubhoomi- A Nation Without Women is a poignant point in case, “When I wrote the movie two years ago there was one such
village in Gujarat that had no females left in it. Today there are five more hamlets without women! There rampage. We are concerned about the dwindling numbers of tigers, but how about the endangered species of women?” he asks. messa
Tulip Joshi, playing Kalki the only woman left in the village in Matrubhoomi, voices her concern, “35 million women are missing since the last 100 years from the face of the earth owing to horrendous act of foeticide. This atrocious practice must be stopped before the
social balance is tipped. This prejudice and preference for male heir is going to cost us dear,” she cautions. Tulip, a Miss India contestant and a Mumbai girl was also shocked out of her wits when she shot for the film in Harda village in MP, “It was my first visit to a village and was it an eye opener! I realized women are meted out inferior treatment and they submit meekly to it. My attempt has been to portray the character of Kalki with intense sincerity so that the ge reaches out to people.” Sure enough the movie has dealt a blow to the conscience of the viewers, “There was a couple who told us that they weren’t too excited about the female foetus indicated by sonography test but after watching the movie, they visited the temple to thank God for blessing them with a daughter,” relates Tulip triumphantly.
Theatre veteran Nadira Babbar also raises rubble over female foeticide in her thought-provoking play Ji Jaisi Aapki Marzi, “Over the years, I have heard, read and witnessed how women are ill treated right from their conception, birth to their death irrespective of their social status, religion or region. I wanted to bring their sorry plight to notice and kindle some sensibility through my play. I am not one of those feminists who advocate smoking, wearing revealing outfits and free sex, women’s lib to me is standing up to the atrocities waged against women. There has to be a uniform code of conduct for men and women of all religions,” she stresses.
Aruna Raje, feminist filmmaker credited with films like Gehraee, Rihaee, Bhairavi, Sitam and Tum ….. had staged a street play about disappearing females from the rural setting with NGO Stree Bal Shakti, five years ago, “A news report had triggered our concern then. But women continue being herded as cattle with pallus and burkhas over their heads. Social beliefs that you cannot get moksha until your son lights your pyre or that you must die a suhagan must be rubbished first. We have to transform the mindset of women themselves, they have to be granted liberation from social traps. Every Indian must see Matrubhoomi once as retribution for the times we live in,” she fumes.
The mindset must change, Manish Jha also points out further that female feoticide is not a rural phenomenon, “We are not prepared to accept the reality that it doesn’t happen only in UP and Bihar. It happens in Mumbai and Delhi too. The tools of perpetration are more sophisticated, that is all! When the film was screened in Canada, I met Indian couples settled there for 30 years telling me how they travel all the way to US for sex determination since it is illegal in Canada. The Indian mind set hasn’t changed even after living abroad in a progressive society,” he bemoans.
The solution to this social malady remains in education. “We can control this evil only by educating women and children around us and standing up for one another no matter what,” emphasizes Babbar. “I hope a day comes when a woman becomes such a rare commodity that she will become invaluable and powerful. Like the Queen Bee with drones milling and toiling about just to get to her. But that is wishful thinking, as of now I hope man stops killing women and felling trees and disturbing the natural balance. The repercussions of such mindless acts can only lead to desolation,” warns Raje.