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Tuesday 8 May 2012

Satyamev Jayate

It was a joy of sorts to watch the television show hosted by Aamir Khan on Sunday last, called Satyamev Jayate. Joy in the sense of someone doing something meaningful in this increasingly meaningless world.
The subject - female foeticide- was anything but joyous. Women who have been subjected to multiple abortions simply because they were carrying a female foetus, women who gave birth to girls and underwent terrible torture in the hands of their husbands and in-laws- these stories show how well educated and well-to-do families stoop to subhuman levels to have a male in their house. For what? For lineage, they say... What lineage? A lineage of murderers???  A lineage of men who attack their wives or turn away their parents in their old age? Who has made this silly rule that men will be responsible for lineage and women will not be?
By the way, it was time TV viewers were told categorically that the sex of the unborn child is determined by the sperm and not by the egg. So men, go blame yourselves, and in-laws blame your son, your brother, your whoever...
The show also looked at various aspects of the issue. There is a skewed ratio of sexes in Punjab and Haryana. A huge gathering of men complained to Aamir that they were of marriageable age but there are no girls to get married to!
Well, it is now up to us, the people of India (those of sane minds), to take up cudgels and fight for justice and prevent further murders. If it takes a celebrity to wake us up from our ennui, then so be it.
Wake up India because Truth alone shall prevail!!!

1 comment:

Ravishankar said...

there is one critical aspect of female infanticide that could probably be explored and that deals with the internalization of male value system that makes the woman take the life of her own child...this practice is prevalent in tamil nadu...which seems to be a bastion for this barbaric practice...