“Swastha Balika-Swastha Samaj”
“Healthy Girl Child- Healthy
Society”
WHY DO WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT?
WHY in India do we need to have a campaign dedicated solely to the girl
child? Why couldn’t we simply talk about healthy children? Let me introduce you
to some hard realities. For every 1000
male children, we have 86 missing girl children. Surpringly, this ratio is far worse
in urban “educated” areas than in its rural counter-parts and has in-fact been
dipping since independence. Where did all these girls go? Do we know that a
girl child in India is 75% more likely to die than a boy child? Why this
disparity? If this isn’t enough to shake you up, then try and consume this
piece of information- 50% of young girls in India are malnourished, 53% of girls in the age group of 5 to 9 years are illiterate and 1 out
of 4 girls is sexually abused before the age of 4!
In a land where ‘girl child’ has historically been given the status of a
Goddess, how did we come to a stage where
millions of goddesses are malnourished, illiterate, weak and abused?
Poor Health outcomes of a girl child are a result of deeper rooted Social and Economic determinants. Even if she escapes a feticide, a
girl child is less likely to receive immunization, nutrition or medical
treatment compared to a male child due to inherent discrimination in an Indian
home. Let us suppose she is fortunate enough to receive formal education, sadly
enough she ends up in a school which can’t even offer her an operational toilet!
Now let us not even begin to talk about sanitary and menstrual health. Hasn’t
that been a big Taboo in Indian societies for generations? But what we do
believe is in marrying off 48% of the women before the age of 18. This weak,
uneducated and disempowered girl gives birth to a weaker and an unhealthier
child; and the entire cycle of poverty, poor health and discrimination
continues.
WHAT DO WE DO ABOUT IT?
Interestingly, modern day campaigns and
write ups regarding social issues unduly harp about the innumerable problems
and challenges that we face. Although it may be easier to sit and count what
needs to be done. But it is much more difficult to not only find but act on practical
and actionable solutions for the same. If I were to mention that ‘one’ (prima
facie) thing that I learnt during my Masters training at Harvard, it would be
the need for “context based solutions”
for most of our Global Health and Development problems. Sitting 10, 000 miles
away with no understanding of social and cultural contexts, we cannot be
providing artificial solutions for very “real” problems like discrimination and
marginalization of girl child. Hence solutions have to emerge from the problems
itself and cannot be read in isolation for all practical purposes. Moreover,
the solution lies not only in government
& donor funded programs but in having a sustained change in social mindsets
and norms.
This
change begins at home. And it begins
with a mother giving equal preference to both male and female child. We all
know that a mother should not discriminate between them in matters of
nutrition, education and access to formal health care when needed. But this
rhetoric falls on deaf ears, when you try argue the same with the head of a
rural household. “Utilitarian” logic teaches them, that a girl is financial
liability which needn’t be invested upon in terms of education, health or
employment. One day she will leave them & go to her husband’s house is what
they say, thus giving them no economic dividends in return.
Gandhi once reiterated a Kantian logic,
that human beings can’t be treated as a means to an end, but that they are an
end in itself. This line of thought,
has given rise to what today we know as the Human Rights approach. Here we
don’t justify equal rights for the girl child on account of the fact that even
girls can be taught and gainfully employed to become an “asset” for an economic
and rational Indian household. But we demand the same because human rights are
so intrinsic in nature that by virtue of birth alone, they need to be respected
as such. Still, education and monetary compensation for young working women has
unleashed an entire unexplored “utility”
of female power.
The new government has
rightfully recognized the need to make this a national priority. Haryana state which
has historically been infamous for extremely low sex ratios, was chosen as a symbolic
launchpad for the nationwide Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) campaign. In fact,
for the first time in history, Haryana has started showing a reversal in the
downward trend for child sex ratio. Innovative
ways of rebranding this message including the ‘Selfie with
Daughter’ initiative started by a Sarpanch are being used to bring about a change in the social mindsets
through training, sensitization, awareness raising and community mobilization
on ground. And it is this attitude that
we at “Swastha Balika”/Healthy Girl Child campaign are aiming to inculcate for
a healthier tomorrow. This campaign plans to cover all the 29 states and UTs and
reach every Indian household to bring about a change in our social-cultural mindset which are intended to
successfully eliminate the discriminatory health seeking behaviors against and
amongst girl children. We also plan to initiate discussions and create a sense
of urgency around health sector reforms, particularly those that relate to the
health & wellbeing of a girl child. This will include incorporating suggestions and ideas
around redesigning of ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) as a focal
point for all round development of girl child, testing ‘Financial incentives for
Doctors on delivering a girl child and to school authorities for retaining
female students up until secondary school and a renewed focus on Health
education of a girl child in at least 4
important domains including Nutrition, Sanitation, Menstrual Health, and
Healthy Lifestyles & Yoga. And these recommendations collected from the
common masses including you and me, complemented with evidence shared by Health
and Policy experts, shall be thereafter compiled into an actionable document. This compilation of our experiences, learnings
and suggestions to improve the health and social status of a girl child would
then be circulated and disseminated across various domains including the CSO,
multilateral development agencies, media, government authorities and most
importantly back to where these came from- the people.
Dr.
Ananya Awasthi
Masters
in Global Health (Harvard University)
22/July/2016
