Rich state treats daughters poorly

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Punjab ‘leads’ in gender bias towards girls

“In Punjab, there is pervasive gender bias despite high levels of economic growth and per capita income bias. There is a 10-point difference in the under-five mortality rate of boys and girls, compared to only a two-point difference in the under-five mortality rate at the all-India level.”

By Nadia Singh

PUNJAB, the land of milk and honey in popular imagination offers some of the worst conditions for survival and wellbeing of the girl child in India.  This alarming fact has been revealed by the latest data of the Sample Registration Survey, released in July, 2016.

Punjab remains in the category of least-performing states as far as gender bias in nutritional and health indicators is concerned.

There is a 10-point difference in the under-five mortality rate of boys and girls in Punjab, compared to only a two-point difference in the under-five mortality rate at the all-India level. This implies that one in every 27 girls and one in every 38 boys in the state die before the age of five.

The only other states which have performed worse than Punjab in this regard are Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Young girls in Punjab are at an extreme disadvantage in terms of care and attention at the household level, which has been revealed by a number of previous national surveys.

There continue to be marked differences in the health and nutritional status of boys and girls in terms of duration of breastfeeding, treatment for common childhood diseases and immunisation, which manifest themselves in higher levels of childhood mortality among girls.

Gender bias against the girl child in Punjab is higher, not only in comparison to other developed states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh but also in comparison to some of the poorer states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Even the neighbouring state of Haryana, which is known for high degree of son preference, has performed better than Punjab on many counts.

In recent years, the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in Punjab has reached 1.7, which is below the replacement level of 2.1.  A report released by the International Development Research Centre, “Planning Families, Planning Gender,” has revealed that in rural Punjab, with the continuous fragmentation of land holdings and declining yields from agriculture, people are indulging in “selective family planning.”

The desired family composition comprises of either one son or one son and one daughter.  People do not want more than one son, for fear of further dividing ancestral agricultural land.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (2014), Punjab ranks fourth in terms of the human development index and 16th in terms of gender development index, among all other Indian states, making it the state with the highest negative differentials between these two indices.

This implies that the development process in the state is highly skewed against its female population and the fruits of higher level of education, health and income have not been borne by the girls in the state.  The sex ratio in the state reached an all-time low in 2001 and declined to 874/1000, while the child sex ratio deteriorated to an all-time low of 798/1000. These figures created a widespread furor.

Both the state and the Centre sprung into action and launched a number of initiatives to curb the declining sex ratios through stricter implementation of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Test Act, better antenatal care for expecting mothers and cash transfer schemes for the girl child.  Religious and community organisations also launched several campaigns highlighting the ills of gender discrimination.

The Akal Takht proclaimed that anyone indulging in the practice of female foeticide would be declared a kudimaar (murderer of a daughter) and excommunicated from the Sikh faith.

These initiatives have been successful to some extent as the Census 2011 revealed that both the child sex ratio and the overall sex ratio have shown a marked improvement in the state.

While the sex ratio has increased to 893/1000 in 2011, the child sex ratio has improved by 48 points to 846/1000. However it still remains below the national average of 940/1000.

In spite of this improvement, discrimination and neglect of the girl child at the household level continues unabated.

One of the reasons for the continued deprivation of the girl child is the misplaced nature of state policy.  In recent years, both the central and the state governments have launched conditional cash transfer schemes (CCTs) to promote better care of the girl child.

These schemes provide a set of staggered financial incentives to families to encourage them to ensure certain minimum requirements like registration of birth, childhood immunisation, enrolment and retention in school and delaying the age of marriage beyond 18 years.

The Punjab government is currently implementing several such schemes for the girl child — Kanya Jagriti Jyoti Scheme, Balri Rakshak Yojna, Dhanlaxmi scheme and Bebe Nanki Ladli Beti Kalyan Scheme and free health care for the girl child.

However, these schemes have made little impact. They are sadly wanting in terms of design, implementation and outreach. They are highly rigid and inflexible and require the intended beneficiaries to meet with a number of unreasonable conditions.

For instance, since the Balri scheme came into operation in March 2005 only 316 girls benefitted from the scheme across the state, after which it was made defunct due to lack of sanctioned funds.

A similar fate met the other schemes as well. The state government did not launch any active campaign to spread awareness about these schemes, further contributing to their low coverage.

Education in rural Punjab remains in a state of disarray, as documented by a number of studies.  The situation is especially bad for young girls, since the Kiranjeet incident in the 1990s, when a young schoolgirl was raped and murdered while coming back from school.

In recent years, there have been a number of untoward incidents such as the Shruti kidnapping in 2014, which have made people wary. Most rural residents are reluctant to send their girls to schools outside the village because of safety concerns.  As a result, most girls are only educated up to middle/ secondary school and fail to achieve higher education and become economically independent.

Gender discrimination is one of the most crucial challenges in Punjab today.  This problem can only be solved through holistic development of girls with focus on nutrition, education and empowerment of girls so that they are able to provide better care to children.

Government incentives can be a useful interim mechanism to encourage poor families to invest in the health and education of girls. However, these schemes should be simplified and made more flexible to enable more girls to benefit from these.

Till then, the nanhi chhaans will remain shadows, rather than shades.

The writer is a PhD researcher and a lecturer at Oxford Brookes Business School, UK.