It's a Girl! Page #3

allergic to eggs,

her husband and his mother

baked a cake made with

eggs and fed it to her.

When Mitu became ill, she had

to be taken to the hospital.

There, Mitu's husband

and his mother

convinced the doctor to secretly

perform an ultrasound.

When the doctor did,

the ultrasound revealed

that Mitu's twins

were both girls.

The demands for

abortion intensified.

Now there were no demands

for sex determination.

Now the demand

was for abortion.

In a fit of rage, Mitu's husband

pushed her down the stairs.

Then, she was locked in a room

- Injured and bleeding -

in hopes she would miscarry.

But Mitu was determined

to have her daughters.

She escaped to her

parent's house.

Eventually, she gave birth

to her twin daughters,

though two months premature.

She had not told her

parents everything.

Her parents, who are her

support group now,

she had not even told them.

That's a very common

story in India,

that women do

not tell anybody

and especially in their

own families,

because being unsuccessful

in a marriage

is not only about the

woman's own status,

it's also about her own

family's status.

So they would be looked

down upon.

There would be a certain

amount of social ostracism.

That is why a Dowry Prohibition

Act sometimes fails,

because a family would rather pay

that dowry to keep the marriage,

and then have all the violence

unleashed on their daughter

rather than taking her out

from there.

My husband told me that he

wants a mutual divorce.

He hates me and he doesn't

want to live with me,

wants to remarry because he

wants to have sons,

which I have not given him.

He has not got anything

by marrying me.

He has not got dowry,

he has not got sons,

so according to him

I was a useless wife.

He wanted to throw me out.

Then I think she changed from

being a victim to a survivor.

I think there was change in

her personality at that stage,

and that is not at all common.

We have seen a lot of women

who probably break the silence,

but then they go back.

There is some kind of a

compensation by the family,

or they have been

frightened to go back

or they feel it's better not to go

out into the public and do this,

so they get back with

their families.

On 9th of May I filed a complaint

to the PNDT department,

which bans sex determination.

They didn't take

any action on it.

In order to curb the growing practice

of female feticide, India passed

the Preconception and Prenatal

Diagnostic Techniques Act in 1994.

The PCPNDT act made it illegal

for a doctor to determine

a fetus' gender

and for parents to abort a

child because she is a girl.

According to the PCPNDT,

doctors with ultrasound machines

must be registered and

are required to report

whenever they perform an

ultrasound and for what reason.

But many doctors

ignore the law.

Families pay these doctors

under the table

to discover the gender

of their child,

in order to abort the

fetus if it is a girl.

And though such practices

are illegal,

the government rarely investigates

instances when the law is broken.

As a result, sex-selective abortion

continues to be common in India.

All together it's a connivance

between the family

and status of a very

disempowered woman.

She can't really say anything

and connivances between the family,

doctor, and the technology people

that is coming together to take away

the right to life from the girl children.

For the doctors, the more

unethical they are,

the greater their income.

Because there's virtually total impunity

to the crimes they commit.

No risk of being caught,

but enormous profits.

You will hardly hear of any cases where

it has been enforced in any state,

and there is absolutely no accountability

from the top to the bottom.

Today, Mitu continues to plead with

the government to prosecute

her husband, who forced her

to get the illegal ultrasound

as well as the doctor

who performed it.

Doctors make large

sums of money

for performing such

ultrasounds, though.

And the courts favor doctors

and hospitals in such cases.

This fight has been going

on for years.

The Chief District Medical Officer,

who was supposed to take action

and seal the hospital on this,

he called me to his

office in August.

I, along with Mrs. Bijayalaxmi Nanda,

who is a good friend of mine,

we went to his office.

And there I was told that,

"What's the problem if your

husband wants a son?

You are young, you can

again get pregnant. "

He said, "I'm giving

you fatherly advice. "

So I asked him, "Sir, what do

you mean by a fatherly advice?

Does this mean that in

the next pregnancy

you're asking me to go for a

sex determination test?

Or you mean to say that we

women are just machines

and we should go on producing

children until we get a son?"

I started receiving threats

that I'll be murdered

and my daughters will be killed

if I do not withdraw the cases.

And eventually on the night

duty at 11:
30 P.M.,

one senior doctor came

and he threatened me

with rape if I do not withdraw

the complaints.

What should I do to

save my daughters?

Where do I go from here?

But the reason I am

rushing to the courts

is that if all this can happen with

an educated woman like me,

what is the guarantee

my future generations,

my daughters will not face the same

harassment when they grow up?

It is 16 years since

the act was passed

and I am the first complainant,

and I am being harassed.

I've been writing to

the Prime Minister,

to the President, to

the Health Minister.

I've been visiting their offices

but nothing has come out of it.

Will any other Mitu

come forward?

Now she's mobilized a lot of people

on the issue on her own.

She runs her own blogs.

She tells her stories,

which is very difficult

to break out of the mold

and tell your own stories.

She keeps people updated

on her own cases.

She's fighting a battle on her own,

with her own resources.

And she tries to build up

public support.

I think from a

victim to a survivor

to being the face of a campaign

for missing girls,

Mitu is a role model in

many ways.

I am yet to see a mother

who revels so much

and is so happy about just

seeing her daughters grow.

I think in that way

she is an example.

The female gendercide

prevalent in India

is also widespread in

its neighbor China.

Like India, China is a

patriarchal nation

with a strong son-preference

culture.

But the Chinese government

has created a policy,

which ultimately

encourages gendercide.

In response to fears of

overpopulation,

China introduced the One-Child

Policy in 1979.

The law restricts most Chinese

couples to one child.

Rural families, though,

are allowed a second child

if their first is a daughter...

so they can try for a son.

Enforcement of the policy

is strict and harsh.

Families found in violation

of the policy

may be subject to forced abortion

or forced sterilization.

There are people in the village

that look for people like me.

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