Bride sales increase as girls go missing in Gujarat

Ahmedabad, June 18: 'Sale, sale, sale, for one bride, get two grooms free', reads a poster campaign pointing to the stark reality of declining number of girls in India following years of rampant sex selective abortions.

''India's growing gender imbalance is a cause of concern. As 50 million girls already go missing today, according to the Lancet study -- the fallout of this dangerous trend can destroy the social and human fabric of our country,'' warned Dhrupad Joshi of Nehru Yuvak Kendra at Mehsana in the north Gujarat district, which is notorious for having an abysmally low child sex ratio of 798.

The implications of a skewed sex ratio are already being seen in some parts of Gujarat, which with 878 girls per thousand boys, has the sixth lowest child sex ratio in the country.

''It had led to an alarming increase in violence against women, rapes, prostitution, trafficking and sex rackets in the past decade,'' he stressed.

''Girls are being brought from the predominantly tribal districts of Dangs, Sabarkantha and Banaskantha and sold in Mehsana, Ahmedabad and other richer districts,'' said Sanjay Dave, coordinator of Charkha, a grassroots-level organisation in Gujarat.

''It is sad that the girls are weighed like cattle or commodities. The educated, good-looking ones fetch more money,'' he said.

Here, dalals (agents or middlemen) are plenty. They broker deals between the families of the girl and the boy, which may be anywhere between Rs 5,000 to Rs one lakh.

''Needless to say, the girl is never a beneficiary in such deals.

The buck that her family makes is spent on her marriage. Thereafter, she is left to battle her bad fate. In most cases, she is treated shabbily by her in-laws, like a slave, as she was bought,'' said Ila Pathak, head of the Ahmedabad Women's Action Group (AWAG).

If the girl is a tribal, she often finds it difficult to adjust to the 'more advanced' Patel or Chaudhury Patel communities. Some flee their in-laws' homes. Some others are shown the doors by the in-laws, after they give birth to the children, she said.

As a result, the atrocities against women are on the rise.

''The number of rape cases has increased in the past three years. In 2003, Gujarat had 230 registered rape cases. This has shot up to 331 in 2004 and 336 last year. The state was once considered a secure place for women,'' Ms Pathak noted.

Already, problems of prostitution and sex rackets have started cropping up in Unjha and Visnagar talukas of the Mehsana district, where the child sex ratio is a disappointing 742 and 766 respectively.

''Many men in these areas who, unable to find a legal mate as they could not find or buy one, start frequenting sex workers and become prone to AIDS,'' said Ramilaben Gandhi of Yoganjali Ashram.

This area can blow up into a HIV hotspot in the next five years or so, she warned.

Ironically, the abortion of female foetuses is most prevalent in the progressive states of India like Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Gujarat, which have recorded a shocking dip in the number of girls in the past decade, said Leela Visaria, former director of the Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR). It is being carried out through misuse of technology, more prevalent in the urban areas, especially among the rich and educated, she said.

The shift to small family size in modern day India, too, has only strengthened the preference for sons.

''Women want fewer children, while ensuring that at least one, if not two, are sons,'' she said.

In Gujarat, the menace is found more in affluent districts like Mehsana, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Rajkot, Surat, Anand and Kheda which have a child sex ratio less than 900, while less developed ones like Dangs, Amreli (both with 987), Dahod, Banaskantha, Kutch and Navsari have better ratios.

The regional disparity in figures could be more because of inaccessibility to technology rather than anything else, Ms Pathak emphasised.

''If a doctor opens an ultra-sound clinic in the tribal-dominated Dangs, then in a few months, one can witness a dwindling sex ratio there too!'' she said.

''It is unfortunate that despite being educated, the mindset of people has not changed. They still believe that sons are responsible for carrying forward the family name and a source of support during old age, while daughters are 'paraya dhan' (to be 'handed' to another family upon marriage),'' said Ilaben Vakharia of Chetna, who is actively involved in a campaign against sex selective abortions in Mehsana and Sabarkantha districts.

UNI