There could not be a more blatant lie than this one as Vedic scriptures are full of references of large scale cow-slaughter while throwing grand feast for Brahmanical gods and sages.
Swami Vivekananda, regarded as a philosopher of Hindutva by the RSS, while addressing a meeting at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, USA (February 2, 1900) declared: “You will be astonished if I tell you that, according to old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it.” [Vivekananda, “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, vol. 3, Advaita Ashram, Calcutta, 1997, p. 536.]

While addressing a gathering of Brahmins at Madura (now in Tamil Nadu), he stated: “There was a time in this very India when, without eating beef, no Brahmin could remain a Brahmin; you read in the Vedas how, when a Sannyasin, a king, or a great man came into a house, the best bullock was killed…” [Ibid., p. 174.]

The latest addition in this criminal trait of RSS functioning was witnessed at the University of Delhi on September 3, 2023. Krishna Gopal, Sah Sarkaryawah (general secretary), RSS addressed a gathering on women’s empowerment under the aegis of Naari Shakti Sangam.

While referring to the disempowerment of women [he meant Hindu women] in Indian history, he stated that prior to the 12th century, women were reasonably free to a great extent but with the ushering of the middle ages [medieval period]. It was a very difficult time… the entire country is struggling with subjugation.

“Temples were broken, universities destroyed and women were in danger. Lakhs of women were kidnapped and sold in international markets. (Ahmed Shah) Abdali, (Mohammed) Ghouri and (Mahmood of) Ghazni had all taken women from here and sold them…. It was an era of great humiliation. So, to protect our women, our own society put multiple restrictions on them.”

He continued to enlighten the women’s gathering that “to ensure that our girl children were safe, child marriages started. Our country had no ‘Satipratha’. There may have been a couple of examples… but (after the advent of Islamic invaders), a large number of women started committing ‘jauhar’, ‘sati’…there was no restriction on widow remarriage either”.

It is interesting to note that no female ideologue of the RSS came to deliver main address in this women’s conference. Apart from holding ‘Islamic invaders’ for evils like Sati, child marriages and opposition to widow remarriage, he warned Hindu women present at the University of Delhi conclave not to ape the Western culture, stating “kitchen was as important as becoming a scientist”. Of course, no such advisory issued to Hindu men by any of the RSS ideologues.

Krishna Gopal hid the reality that hundreds of years after the ‘Muslim’ rule, the organizations associated and affiliated with the RSS have been preaching Sati, opposing widow remarriage and human rights for Hindu women. The epic “Mahabharata” records incidents of Sati: when Pandu, a patriarch, died, his wife Madri mounted her husband’s pyre and performed Sati. And when Vasudev (father of Lord Krishna) died, his four wives immolated themselves with him.

Geeta Press, recently awarded Gandhi Peace Award by the BJP-led government has published in millions books like, “Nari Shiksha” (Education of Women) by Hanuman Prasad Poddar, “Grahsth Mein Kaise Rahen” [How to Lead a Household Life] by Swami Ramsukhdas, “Striyon ke Liye Kartawya Shiksha” (Education of Duties for Women) and “Nari Dharm” (Religion of Woman) by Jai Dayal Goindka and a special issue of magazine “Kalyan” on women. Many of these are available in English and other Indian languages.
The authors extensively quote from ancient texts like Shiva Purana and Manusmriti.

They borrow heavily from these and other ‘holy’ texts, upholding a subservient woman/wife as the ideal Hindu woman. For instance in the book titled How to Lead a Household Life which is in question-answer format, when a question is posed, ‘What should the wife do if her husband beats her and troubles her?” Swami Ramsukhdas offers the following sagely advice to the battered wife and her parents: 

“The wife should think that she is paying her debt of her previous life and thus her sins are being destroyed and she is becoming pure. When her parents come to know this, they can take her to their own house because they have not given their daughter to face this sort of bad behaviour.”

RSS leader told women’s gathering, to ensure that our girl children were safe, child marriages were started

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The Hindu-nationalist RSS created a narrative about a golden past, an age when Manu and his word were law. It also claimed that “Hindu values” meant equal status for all castes, and women had a respectable position in Hindu society. They still claim that Muslim invaders and plunderers caused a decline in these glorious values and that evil invaders cost Hindu women their prominent place in society. They even blame the cruel practice of Sati on Muslim invasions. Such ideas and claims form the core of Hindu nationalist “myth creation” about why Hindu women were restrained.

The RSS sahkaryavah, or general secretary, Krishna Gopal, repeated all such claims on 4 September when he addressed a gathering on women’s empowerment organised by an outfit called Naari Shakti Sangam. He said, “Prior to the 12th century, women were reasonably free to a great extent, but in the middle ages [India’s medieval era], a very difficult time came. The entire country was struggling with subjugation. Women were in danger. Lakhs of women were kidnapped and sold in international markets. [Ahmed Shah’ Abdali, [Mohammed] Ghori and [Mahmood of] Ghazni took women from here and sold them. It was an era of great humiliation. So, to protect our women, our society put multiple restrictions on them.”

Gopal would have his listeners not just believe his justification to repress women but also that the plunder of wealth of rival kingdoms and enslavement of the conquered were restricted to Muslim invaders. Both, however, run through kingdoms and history. The Chola kings brought innumerable slaves from Sri Lanka. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s army plundered Kalyan, and Kalyan’s governor’s Muslim daughter-in-law was taken captive.

The restrictions on Hindu women that Gopal refers to prevailed long before any Muslim kings set foot in South Asia—including Sati, the immolation of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre.

Women were deprived of property and education due to the social norms prevailing in early India. In the Mahabharata, there are accounts of Pandu’s wife Madri and Lord Krishna’s father Vasudev’s four wives burning themselves to death after their husbands died.

The subordination of women was due to patriarchy, influenced by sentiments such as clan superiority, and both factors had a crucial role in Sati. As per the historian Romila Thapar, the significant factors in the rise of Sati were the subordination of women in patriarchal society, the changing “systems of kinship”, and the desire to exert “control over female sexuality”. According to most historians of repute, Sati originated within the Kshatriya aristocracy and remained limited mainly to the so-called warrior classes among Hindus.

The decline of trade and commerce in the post-Gupta period in Indian history is among the critical reasons for the decline in the status of women. They were prohibited from education; child marriage increasingly became the norm; widow remarriage was prohibited; occurrences of the dreadful practice of Sati grew, too. Before this period, Sati was an occasional phenomenon.

How does RSS deal with the issue? An exclusively male organisation, it promoted the Rashtra Sevika Samiti as a subordinate outfit. Its very name reflects the Hindu nationalist outlook on gender, for the word swayam (being, self) is missing from its name, and the word sevika—service—is included instead.

The Rashtra Sevika Samiti has been preaching to its women followers total support of the subordinate position of women. Vijaya Raje Scindia, vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the political offshoot of the RSS, took out a morcha to Parliament to support Sati in the aftermath of the Roopkawar sati case. That was when Parliament was discussing a new law to curb this practice. Scindia believed committing Sati was a “glorious” tradition and the right of Hindu women. In April 1994, Mridula Sinha, a top leader of the Samiti, who later became the Governor of Goa, advised Hindu women in an interview with Savvy magazine to “adjust” if her husband beats her—for she could have “provoked” the assault. She also defended dowry—“my father bought me a husband in just Rs 5,000”—and said women must not work outside the home unless it is a dire necessity.

We also recall former RSS prachark Pramod Muthalik, members of whose outfit, the Sri Ram Sene, were recorded on camera beating girls leaving a pub in Mangalore, Karnataka, in 2009. The outfit was later acquitted, and the police investigation came under the scanner. Thrashing young couples on St Valentine’s Day is a regular feature of the Bajrang Dal, another RSS-related outfit. On 10 November 2020, Goa Police registered an FIR against Shilpa Singh, an assistant professor at a law college, for allegedly “outraging religious sentiments” by comparing the mangalsutra worn by married women to a dog’s chain. The RSS’s student outfit, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, complained to the college authorities.

The BJP government recently honoured the Gita Press with the Gandhi Peace Prize, but it, too, peddled values parallel to the RSS’s beliefs. The Gita Press has been rehashing the Manusmriti’s values on caste and gender issues for decades. Many books from this press advise Hindu women to remain subordinated to men, and give women a litany of advice. Some of these books are Nari Shiksha [Education of Women] by Hanuman Prasad Poddar, Grahsth Mein Kaise Rahen [How to Lead a Household Life] by Swami Ramsukhdas, Striyon ke Liye Kartawya Shiksha [Education on the Duties of Women] and Nari Dharm [Duties of Women] by Jai Dayal Goyandka are few of them.

To top it, the RSS and its affiliate outfits aggressively campaign against their own make-believe’ love Jihad’. It is nothing but an effort to control Hindu women by targeting Muslims. On the pretext of love Jihad, these organisations go house to house advising the Hindu parents and male relatives to “keep an eye on girls”. The historian Charu Gupta wrote in 2009, “Whether it is 1920 or 2009, Hindu patriarchal notions appear deeply entrenched. In both campaigns, images of passive victimised Hindu women at the hands of inscrutable Muslims abound, and any possibility of women exercising their legitimate right to love and their right to choice is ignored.”

The latest from the RSS leadership is yet another reiteration of their unshakable faith in patriarchy. That is why they blame all ills of Hindu society on external factors and hide behind the social structures and the scriptures that promote these problems.

The author is a human rights activist. The views are personal.

Courtesy: Newsclick

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He taught himself numbers counting the mile-stones from his native Birsingha village of Midnapore district, West Bengal to Calcutta when he was barely eight years old. Today, September 26 is 196^th Birth Anniversary. Born into a family steeped in poverty, his life story is one of commitment and compassion. His life struggle was to dignify the life of the Hindu widow, prevent Child Marriage and ensure egalitarianism and dignity for those whom the caste system viewed as “lower”, unclean or polluted. The last two decades of his life were spent with the Santhals at ‘Nandan Kanan’ in the district of Jamtara where he died in 1891.

His fierce advocacy and campaigning ensured the enactment of a law in 1856 which removed all legal obstacles to the marriage of Hindu widows. The Widow Remarriage Act XV was passed in 1856.(July 25)

It was the plight of child widows in India that influenced his passionate campaign and he worked hard to make life better for these young girls and women. He was a staunch believer in the remarriage of widows and tried to create awareness about this issue.
 
Why were there so many increasing numbers of child widows?
One of the huge contributing factors was that many wealthy men of high castes used to have numerous wives which they would leave behind as widows upon their death. Hence, as a logical extension of the campaign for modernity and reform, Vidyasagar also fought against the system of polygamy.
 
Ishwar Chandra Bandopadhyaya was born to Thakurdas Bandyopadhyay and mother Bhagavati Devi was a unique symbol of the Bengali Renaissance, a great scholar, academician and reformer of whom, on his death Rabindranath Tagore said, "One wonders how God, in the process of producing forty million Bengalis, produced such a man!"

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar campaigned for Widow Remarriage, Abolition of Child-Marriage and Polygamy. He also opened the doors of the colleges and other educational institutions to lower caste students, which were earlier reserved only for the Brahmins. For his immense generosity and kind-heartedness, people started addressing him as "Dayar Sagar" (ocean of kindness). He is credited and remembered across Bengal for revolutionizing the education system of Bengal. In his book, "Barno-Porichoy" (Introduction to the letter), Vidyasagar refined the Bengali language and made it accessible to all persons, reducing its exclusivist, Brahmanical orientation.
 
In this day and age of a dominant Hindutva men like Ishwar Chandra Vidya Sagar find no place or mention. Any surprises? They spoke of radical reforms and modernizing of faith practices.
In his own words, why Widow Marriage needed to be Abolished. These are Excerpts from a booklet entitled, Whether the practice of widow-marriage among Hindus should or should not prevail, published by Vidyasagar in 1885:
 
“AN ADEQUATE idea of the intolerable hardships of early widowhood, can be formed by those only whose daughters and sisters have been deprived of their husbands during their infancy. How many hundreds of widows, unable to observe the austerities of a Brahmacharya life, betake themselves to prostitution and foeticide and thus bring disgrace upon the families of their fathers, mothers and husbands. If widow-marriage be allowed, it will remove the insupportable torments of life-long widowhood, diminish the crimes of prostitution and infanticide and secure all families from disgrace and infamy. As long as this salutary practice will be deferred so long will the crimes of prostitution, adultery, incest and foeticide flow on in an ever increasing current… so long will a widow’s agony blaze on in fiercer flames….
 
And this is a description of the first widow marriage, obtained from a biographical sketch of Vidyasagar by Pandit Shivanath Shastri, a Brahmo Samaj leader.
 
“I SHALL never forget the day. When Pandit Vidyasagar came with his friend, the bridegroom, at the head of a large procession, the crowd of spectators was so great that there was not an inch of moving space, and many fell into the big drains which were to be seen by the sides of Calcutta streets those days. After the ceremony, it became the subject of discussion everywhere; in the bazaars and the shops, in the streets; in the public squares, in students’ lodging-houses, in gentlemen’s drawing-rooms, in offices and in distant village homes, where even women earnestly discussed it among themselves. The weavers of Santipore issued a peculiar kind of women’s sari which contained woven along its borders the first line of a newly composed song which went on to say “May Vidyasagar live long.”

Sati ceremony in progress. (Pictorial History of China and India,185.)
 
Campaign for Reforms
It was with the support of many including e Akshay Kumar Dutta, Vidyasagar introduced the practice of widow remarriages to mainstream Hindu society. The prevailing custom of Kulin Brahmin polygamy allowed elderly men — sometimes on their deathbeds — to marry teenage or prepubescent girls, supposedly to spare their parents the shame of having an unmarried girl attain puberty in their house. After such marriages, these girls would usually be left behind in their parental homes, where they might be subjected to orthodox rituals, especially if they were subsequently widowed. These included a semi-starvation, hard domestic labour, and close restriction on their freedom to leave the house or be seen by strangers.

Often, unable to tolerate the ill treatment, many of these girls would run away and turn to prostitution to support themselves. Ironically, the economic prosperity and lavish lifestyles of the city made it possible for many of them to have successful careers once they stepped out of the sanction of society and into the demi-monde. In 1853 it was estimated that Calcutta had a population of 12,718 prostitutes and public women. Many other widows had to shave their heads and don white saris, supposedly to discourage attention from men.
 
Background
A brilliant mind that excelled at academics, his quest for knowledge was so intense that he used to study under a street light as it was not possible for him to afford a gas lamp at home. He cleared all the examinations with excellence and in quick succession. He was rewarded with a number of scholarships for his academic performance. To support himself and the family Ishwar Chandra also took a part-time job of teaching at Jorashanko. In the year 1839, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar successfully cleared his Law examination and two years later, in 1841, at the age of twenty one years, Ishwar Chandra joined the Fort William College as a head of the Sanskrit department.

After five years, in 1946, Vidyasagar left Fort William College and join the Sanskrit College as 'Assistant Secretary'. In the first year of service, Ishwar Chandra recommended a number of changes to the existing education system. This report resulted into a serious altercation between Ishwar Chandra and College Secretary Rasomoy Dutta. Following this, Vidyasagar resigned from Sanskrit College and rejoined Fort William College but as a head clerk.

How a Nawab's Shoe Helped Ishwa Chandra’s Dream of Staring the Calcutta 
An interesting story. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and his few friends decided to collect donations to form Calcutta University. He traveled across Bengal and neighboring states asking people to donate for the foundation. While doing so, one day he reached outside the palace of an influential King, a Nawab. After hearing his plea, not entirely sympathetically, the King, pulled one of his shoes and dropped into Vidyasagar's bag as donation. Vidyasagar thanked the Nawab and left. Turning this into an opportunity, the very next day Vidyasagar organised an auction of the Nawab's shoe and earned Rs. 1000. The Nawab after hearing that his shoe has fetched so much amount of money, he himself gave a similar amount of money as donation.

The title 'Vidyasagar' (ocean of knowledge) was given to him due to his vast knowledge in almost all the subjects. Poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta while writing about Ishwar Chandra said: "The genius and wisdom of an ancient sage, the energy of an Englishman and the heart of a Bengali mother".

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar passed away at the age of 70 on 29 July, 1891. After his death, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s home was sold by his son to the Mallick family of Kolkata that was later purchased by the Bengali Association, Bihar on 29 March 1974. They maintained the house in its original form and also started a Girls’ school and a free homeopathic clinic.

Girls Schools a Priority for Reformers
Recognising the taboos imposed by caste, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, along with many other active reformers emphasized the importance of girls education and even participated in opening schools for girls. This was because, for him, educational reform was much important than any other reform. He believed that the status of women and all kinds of injustice and inequalities that they face could be changed only through education.
 

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पिछले साल जनवरी में प्रधानमंत्री नरेंद्र मोदी ने बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ अभियान शुरू किया था। आजादी के बाद यह पहली दफा है, जब भारत सरकार ने किसी जन अभियान के तहत कन्या भ्रूण हत्या का मुद्दा उठाया है। अठारहवीं सदी के ब्रिटिश जनगणना आंकड़ों ने भारत में महिला-पुरुष आबादी के बढ़ते असंतुलन की तसदीक की थी। इन आंकड़ों में किसी न किसी रूप में कन्या भ्रूण हत्या से लेकर सती प्रथा के जरिये महिलाओं को मार डालने की वजह से महिलाओं की घटती संख्या के बारे में चिंता जताई गई थी। लेकिन आजादी के बाद आई सरकारें इस मुद्दे पर बेहद उदासीन रहीं, भले ही कन्या भ्रूण हत्याएं महामारी की तरह फैल गईं। 

इस मुद्दे पर मोदी की पहल बेहद चौंकाने वाली थी क्योंकि उनके मुख्यमंत्री रहने के दौरान गुजरात में लडक़ों की तुलना में लड़कियों का अनुपात (चाइल्ड सेक्स रेश्यो- सीएसआर) का रिकार्ड सबसे खराब था। इसके अलावा महिलाओं के प्रति मोदी के विचार महिला अधिकारों के लिए लडऩे वाले कार्यकर्ताओं को हमेशा नागवार गुजरे हैं। जैसे- एक बार मोदी ने पांच साल से कम उम्र की लड़कियों में कुपोषण की वजह उनकी फैशन और डाइटिंग के प्रति सजगता को करार दिया था। हालांकि  प्रधानमंत्री के तौर पर उनके बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ अभियान पर महिला और बाल विकास मंत्री मेनका गांधी के विचारों की छाप साफ दिखती है। मोदी जी ने महसूस किया कि जिस तरह से अलग-अलग तरीकों से महिलाओं की हत्या की जा रही है वह एक राष्ट्रीय संकट बनता जा रहा है। इसके बावजूद बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ के उनके नारे से लगता है कि वह बेटियों को बचाने की भीख मांग रहे हैं। इस मामले में वह अधिकार की भाषा बोलने के बजाय अनुनय-विनय करते नजर आ रहे हैं।

भारत में कन्या भ्रूण हत्या को गरीबी और अशिक्षा से जोड़ कर देखा जाता है। जबकि आंकड़े कुछ और कहते हैं। हाल के जनगणना आंकड़ेे (2011 के आंकड़ें) के मुताबिक चाइल्ड सेक्स रेश्यो यानी सीएसआर (यह जन्म से छह साल की उम्र तक लडक़े और लड़कियों की संख्या का अनुपात है) सबसे गरीब और कम पढ़े लिखे समुदायों के बीच सबसे अच्छा है। दुनिया भर में 1000 लडक़ों पर 950 लड़कियों का अनुपात आदर्श माना जाता है। लेकिन आर्थिक समृद्धि और शिक्षा में बढ़ोतरी के साथ ही यह अनुपात बिगडऩे लगता है। देश के सबसे धनी राज्यों में लडक़ों और लड़कियों की तादाद का अनुपात 850 और इससे कम तक पहुंच चुका है। 2011 की जनगणना में 1000 पुरुषों पर 914 महिलाओं का राष्ट्रीय अनुपात है। यानी धनी राज्यों में महिला-पुरुष अनुपात राष्ट्रीय औसत से भी कम है। 1000 पुरुषों पर 914 महिलाओं का राष्ट्रीय अनुपात आजादी के बाद से अब तक का सबसे खराब अनुपात है। आर्थिक समृद्धि में बढ़ोतरी और उसी के अनुपात में 0 से 6 साल के बीच की लड़कियों की हत्या के बीच यह जो संबंध है यह हर जगह यानी पड़ोसी इलाकों, जिलों, गांवों, शहरों और राज्यों में भी दिखता है। यानी कम समृद्ध की तुलना में अधिक समृद्ध जगहों पर महिला-पुरुष अनुपात ज्यादा खराब है। यही चीज जिलों, गांवों, शहरों और राज्यों में भी लागू होती है।

अगर धार्मिक समुदायों की भी तुलना करें तो यहां भी यह गैप आपको नजर आएगा। देश के सबसे समृद्ध सिख और जैन समुदायों में लडक़ों की तुलना में लड़कियों की तादाद काफी कम है। लेकिन इसके उलट आदिवासियों और कथित निचली जातियों में लड़कियों और लडक़ों का अनुपात सबसे अच्छा है। जबकि ये समुदाय सबसे कम शिक्षित और निर्धनतम माने जाते हैं। जिन आदिवासियों के बीच शिक्षा और नौकरियों से समृद्धि आ रही है, वहां लड़कियों और लडक़ों का अनुपात बिगड़ रहा रहा है।

 केरल का इतिहास मातृसत्तात्मक रहा है। वहां कन्या भ्रूण हत्या का इतिहास नहीं रहा है। यहां लड़कियों और लडक़ों का अनुपात सबसे अच्छा था। उच्च साक्षरता दर (92 फीसदी) इसकी वजह मानी जाती रही है। लेकिन 2011 के जनगणना आंकड़ों में सीएसआर में 8.44 फीसदी की गिरावट दर्ज की गई। राज्य में कन्या भ्रूण हत्या और छोटी बच्चियों की हत्या की बेतहाशा बढ़ती दरों की वजह से ऐसा होना स्वाभाविक है। इसका संबंध भी आर्थिक समृद्धि में बढ़ोतरी से है। केरल में बाहर से (प्रवासी केरलवासियों की ओर से धन भेजने की वजह से) खूब पैसा आया है। हर साल यहां विदेश से 20 अरब डॉलर आते हैं।  राज्य में लंबे समय तक कम्यूनिस्ट शासन रहा है। फिर आखिर लड़कियों से छुटकारा पाने की वजह क्या है? खास कर जब आप समृद्धि की ओर बढ़ते जा रहे हैं तो ऐसी क्या मजबूरी है कि लड़कियों को मारा जाए? दरअसल इसकी वजह है दहेज- धन के स्वामित्व और वितरण पर कब्जा जमाने के लिए एक घातक, महिला विरोधी और पितृसत्तात्मक  राजनीति। जैसे-जैसे परिवार आर्थिक तौर पर समृद्ध होता जाता है वैसे-वैसे धन पर पितृसत्तात्मक पकड़ के उसके माध्यमों पर भी निवेश बढ़ता जाता है और यह बेटियों को अपने इस लक्ष्य में बाधक के तौर पर देखने लगते हैं। दरअसल, लडक़ी जितनी शिक्षित होगी और उसका परिवार जितना समृद्ध होगा, उससे उतना ही ज्यादा दहेज लाने की अपेक्षा होगी। दहेज को लड़कियों से छुटकारा पाने के रास्ते के तौर पर देखा जाता है ताकि वह परिवार की आर्थिक विरासत पर अपने हक की आवाज न उठाए। लेकिन अब बढ़ती शिक्षा की वजह से लड़कियां अपने मां-बाप की संपत्ति में अपने हक की लड़ाई लडऩे लगी हैं। 

दूसरी ओर, एक पुरुष को न केवल अपने मां-बा की संपत्ति का हक मिलता है बल्कि उसकी पत्नी के मां-बाप की संपत्ति का भी हिस्सा मिल जाता है। बेटा धन हासिल करने का आसान माध्यम होता है। वह जितना शिक्षित होगा, उसका परिवार उतना ही ज्यादा दहेज मांगने का हकदार माना जाएगा। असल में शादियों की बातचीत के दौरान खुलेआम दहेज का रेट चार्ट बांटा जाता है। इसमें नकद, लग्जरी कार, प्रॉपर्टी, सोने और हीरे के गहनों की किलो के हिसाब से मांग की जाती है। वास्तव में जिन इलाकों में दहेज के रेट ज्यादा हैं वहां से इससे जुड़ी हिंसा, हत्या और आत्महत्याओं की रिपोर्ट भी ज्यादा आती है।

Image: India.gov.in

गरीब और निरक्षर समुदायों में जो चीज लड़कियों को बचाती है वह है पितृसत्तात्मक की विपरीत सामाजिक व्यवस्था का विस्तार। यह  व्यवस्था उस पितृसत्तात्मक समाज के बिल्कुल उलट है, जिसमें महिला को इंसान न मानकर एक खरीद-बिक्री की वस्तु माना जाता है। ऐसी चीज जिसे इस्तेमाल कर फेंक दिया जा सकता है। गरीब घरों में बेेटियां इसलिए बची रह जाती हैं कि क्योंकि  बच्चे के तौर पर उनसे आर्थिक गुलामी करवाई जा सकती है। गरीब घरों में बेटियां सफाई, रसोई के साथ, पानी और ईंधन इकट्ठा करने जैसा काम करती हैं। वे परिवार के लिए काम करके पैसा भी कमा सकती हैं। लाखों लड़कियों को उनके परिवार वाले शहरी इलाके में घरेलू नौकरानियों के तौर पर काम करने के लिए भेज देते हैं। श्रमिकों को तौर पर ये लड़कियां खेतों से लेकर फैक्टरियों और सेक्स इंडस्ट्री में काम करने लगती हैं।

इन लड़कियों के दम पर एक और धंधा फलता-फूलता है और यह है गरीब लड़कियों को धनी राज्यों में दुल्हन बना कर बेच देना। इन इलाकों में इन गरीब लड़कियों को गुलाम की तरह रखा जाता है और उनके साथ यौन दुव्र्यवहार होता है। इन लड़कियों को बच्चे पैदा करने के लिए लाया जाता है और फिर किसी दूसरे परिवार में दुल्हन के तौर पर बेच दिए जाने से पहले परिवार का हर पुरुष उनके साथ दुव्र्यवहार करता है और शोषण करता है। हैदराबाद में तो यह कारोबार खूब चलता है। खाड़ी देशों के कामुक अमीर यहां की मुस्लिम नाबालिग लड़कियों के मां-बाप को अच्छी खासी रकम देकर ले जाते हैं। इन लड़कियों से एक तरह की अस्थायी शादी की जाती है और फिर इनके साथ गुलामों की तरह बर्ताव किया जाता है। उन्हें प्रताडि़त किया जाता है और फिर स्वदेश लौटने से पहले उन्हें तलाक दे दिया जाता है।  देश में बच्चों की खरीद-फरोख्त का नेटवर्क भी खूब फला-फूला हुआ है। यह नेटवर्क अक्सर सरकारी अनाथालयों से ऑपरेट होते हैं। यहां से गरीब आदिवासी समुदायों की नवजात बच्चियों को 5000 रुपये में खरीदा जा सकता है। हालांकि  बेडिय़ा, बांछड़ा, कंजर,सांसी और नट जैसे कई ऐसे जनजातीय समुदाय हैं जहां बेटियों और बहनों को वेश्यावृति के धंधे में डाल कर उन्हें आय का ोत बनाने की परंपरा रही है। इसे परिवार का धंधा माना जाता है। इन समुदायों में लड़कियों की वर्जिनिटी को नीलाम करने की परंपरा रही है। दस साल तक की छोटी बच्चियों की वर्जिनिटी की बोली लगती है। जो जितना ज्यादा पैसा देता है उसे लडक़ी सौंप दी जाती है। 2011 की जनगणना में चौंकाने वाले आंकड़े दिखे हैं। आदिवासी समुदाय में प्रति एक हजार पुरुषों में महिलाओं की संख्या 950 है। लेकिन बेडिय़ा समुदाय में 1000 पुरुषों में महिलाओं की संख्या 1276  है। यह असामान्य रूप से ज्यादा है।

 बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ अभियान पर काफी पैसा खर्च किया जा रहा है। लेकिन इसमें बेहतरीन रणनीति और सूझबूझ भरी परियोजनाओं के बजाय नारेबाजी पर जोर है। इससे इसके लक्ष्यों के प्रति संदेह पैदा होता है।

सामान्य समझ तो यह कहती है कि बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ अभियान में फोकस मध्य और उच्च वर्ग पर होना चाहिए। आंकड़े बताते हैं कि इन वर्गों में लडक़े और लड़कियों का अनुपात (सीएसआर) सबसे खराब है। इसके बावजूद इस अभियान का पूरा फोकस ग्रामीण देश के ग्रामीण और सबसे गरीब जिलों पर है। राजनीतिक नुकसान होने के डर से अभियान का पूरा फोकस गरीबों और कम समृद्ध इलाकों पर है। जबकि फोकस मध्य और उच्च वर्ग पर होना चाहिए।

गांवों में बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ अभियान के तहत जिस एक पॉपुलर प्रोग्राम को खासा फंड दिया जा रहा है- वह है बेटी के जन्म पर एक पेड़ रोपना। इसके पीछे तर्क है कि जब बेटी को दहेज देना हो तो पिता इस पेड़ को काट कर इसकी लकड़ी बेचेगा और कुछ पैसे जुटाएगा। इस तरह से यह उसी दहेज की कुरीति को बढ़ावा देना है, जिसकी वजह से कन्या भ्रूण हत्या बढ़ रही है।

बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ अभियान शुरू करने के वक्त जो दो अहम और प्रभावी परियोजनाएं सुझाई गई थीं वे अब तक शुरू नहीं हो पाई हैं। इनमें से एक सुझाव में कहा गया था कि हर इलाके मेंं एक सार्वजनिक बोर्ड लगाया जाए जिस पर पर हर महीने वहां और आसपास के इलाकों के सीएसआर आंकड़ें दर्ज किए जाएं। इससे लोगों को लडक़ों और लड़कियों के अनुपात के बारे में पता चलेगा। यह अभियान शहरी, मध्य और उच्च वर्ग वाले इलाकों में चलाया जाना चाहिए। इसे प्रभावी तौर पर लागू करने कि लिए पुलिस और लीगल सेल की भी मदद ली जा सकती है।

दूसरा सुझाव यह था कि सभी बच्चियों की जन्म और मृत्यु का अनिवार्य रजिस्ट्रेशन हो। इसके साथ ही 15 साल की उम्र तक हर लडक़ी की निगरानी की अनिवार्य मॉनिटरिंग हो। इस उम्र तक बड़ी संख्या में लड़कियां मार दी जाती हैं या गायब हो जाती हैं। वास्तव में कई बार निम्न सीएसआर अनुपात की वजह कन्या भ्रूण हत्या को माना जाता है। लेकिन जनगणना आंकड़ों के विश्लेषण से पता चलता है कि 84 फीसदी से अधिक लड़कियां एक से छह साल के भीतर मार दी जाती हैं। दरअसल भ्रूण जांच और जन्म लेने के बाद से एक साल के भीतर दस लाख से कम बच्चियों को मारा गया है। लेकिन एक साल से छह साल की उम्र तक पहुंचते ही 70 लाख बच्चियां खत्म कर दी गईं।

इस डरावनी स्थिति को देखते ही बेटी बचाओ, बेटी पढ़ाओ अभियान में इन दो परियोजनाओं को लागू करना सर्वोच्च प्राथमिकता होनी चाहिए।

( रीता बनर्जी लेखिका, फोटोग्राफर और जेंडर एक्टिविस्ट हैं। इनकी किताब – सेक्स एंड पावर : डिफाइनिंग हिस्ट्री, शेपिंग सोसाइटीज,  जेंडर, सेक्सुलिटी और भारत मेंं सत्ता के संबंधों पर ऐतिहासिक अध्ययन है। वह 50 मिलियन मिसिंग कैंपेन की संस्थापक और डायरेक्टर हैं। )

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Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (Save the Girl, Educate the Girl) programme, launched in January 2015, was the first time since independence that the Indian government had raised the issue of female genocide in a public campaign. British census data in the 18th century had attributed India’s skewed sex ratio to female infanticide and other forms of femicide, such as sati, but after independence subsequent governments remained bizarrely indifferent to the issue even as it reached epidemic proportions.

 

Expanding Worlds: mural on the wall of a girls high school depicting career options for women. Photo: Rita Banerji

Modi’s initiative was all the more surprising, given that Gujarat had recorded the lowest Child Sex Ratio (CSR) for girls under his stewardship as state minister.  Modi’s views on women often infuriated women’s activists, for example when he attributed  the high rate of malnutrition among girls under five in his state to dieting and fashion consciousness.  However, as Prime Minister, his Save the Girl campaign appears to have the imprint of Maneka Gandhi’s (the Women and Child Development Minister) independent thinking on women’s issues.  Mr. Modi observed that female genocide  is a national “crisis” although his plea to let girls live and to educate them was framed as the ‘Prime Minister… begging for the lives of daughters’ rather than in the language of rights.

India’s female genocide is widely attributed to poverty and illiteracy even though data and facts say otherwise. As India’s most recent census data from 2011 shows, the CSR, which is the ratio of girls to boys from birth to six years, is best among the poorest and least educated communities. Globally a CSR of 950 girls to 1000 boys is considered ‘normal’.  CSR in India gets worse in proportion to increases in wealth and education. The wealthiest states have a CSR of 850 and below, much lower than the national CSR of 914 in the 2011 census, itself the lowest since India’s independence. This correlation between increase in wealth and a corresponding increase in the rate of killing of girls in the 0-6years age group is repeated across the spectrum in neighbourhoods, districts, villages, cities and states. 

Even a religion wise comparison reveals that the worst CSRs are to be found among the wealthiest communities: the Sikhs and the Jains. Conversely, the highest CSRs are among the tribal and lower caste communities who are also the poorest and least educated.  Yet even among the tribals, when there’s access to wealth through education and jobs, there is a corresponding decline in CSR.  Kerala, with its matrilineal past and no history of female infanticide, had a higher than national average CSR which was always attributed to its high literacy rate (almost 92%). However by the 2011 census Kerala too showed a drop of 8.44% in CSR with reports of rampant foeticide and infanticide. This corresponded with an influx of wealth (almost $20 billion/year) into this historically communist state from Indians working overseas.

What is this driving compulsion to be rid of daughters, particularly with upward social mobility? The answer is dowry – the insidious, misogynist, patriarchal politics of wealth ownership and distribution. The more wealth a family accrues, the more invested it becomes in the patriarchal retention of that wealth and views daughters as a threat to that goal.  Indeed, the more educated a daughter is, and wealthier her family, the bigger the dowry she is expected to bring. Dowry is seen as a way of dispensing with a daughter who then can make no further claims on the family’s inheritance, but because of their education daughters are increasingly fighting for their legal share of parental property. On the other hand, a man not only has an inherent right to his own parents’ property but to his wife’s parents’ wealth too. A son is an easy means of wealth acquisition; the more educated he is, the larger the dowry the family feels entitled to demand. Indeed there are openly exchanged dowry rate charts that list copious amounts of cash, luxury cars, property and gold and diamond jewellery by the kilos.  In fact wealthier neighbourhoods record the highest rates of dowry violence and dowry related murders and suicides.

Nonetheless, this clear correlation of wealth and education with female genocide is anything but an evil-rich and pious-poor divide. The factors that save girls in poorer and illiterate communities, or at least don’t kill them in the same high proportions, are an inverted extension of the same patriarchal system in which women are simply dehumanised and turned into buyable, sellable, usable and disposable commodities. Daughters in poorer homes are allowed to live because as children they can be put to the economic servitude of their families. Poor families use daughters for cleaning, cooking, fetching fuel and water, and for earning an income for the family.  Millions of girls are leased or sold by their families for work as domestic help in urban areas, as labour in fields and factories, and to the sex industry.

Another thriving business involves the sale of thousands of girls as ’brides’ through a network of agents to wealthier states with low sex ratios. These girls are kept as slaves, to sexually abuse, to bear babies, and are abused and exploited by all the men of the house, before they are resold as ‘bride’ to another family. In Hyderabad, there’s a flourishing business where wealthy paedophiles from Gulf countries pay poor Muslim families handsomely to arrange a temporary “marriage” with their underage daughters, who they enslave, abuse and divorce before returning to their countries. There are also thriving baby trafficking networks, often operating out of government orphanages, where the babies, all girls, can be bought for as little as Rs 5000/- (approx. £60) from poor tribal communities.

However, there are also numerous tribal communities like the Bedia, the Banchada, Kanjar, Sansi and Nut, where traditionally the sex trafficking of daughters and sisters has been a primary source of income for families and is considered a ‘family trade.’ These communities are also known to openly auction the virginities of their daughters as young as ten, for large sums to the highest bidders. The 2011 census’s CSR for the Bedia population shows an interesting anomaly.  While tribal communities generally have normal CSRs of about 950, census data shows the Bedia community with a CSR of 1276, which is abnormally high.  Investigations reveal that tribal communities like the Bedia and Nut have interstate networks to traffic girl babies, who they  adopt and raise as their own ‘daughters’ and prep for the ‘family trade’ by injecting them with hormones to sexually develop them by the time they are seven and eight.

Although the ‘Save the Girl, Educate the Girl’ campaign is well-funded, its emphasis on rhetoric instead of strategic and well thought out projects puts into question its ability to accomplish its goals. Common sense says that the focus needs to be on the middle and upper classes where census data shows CSR to be the worst. Yet, the campaign focuses on rural and poorer districts, instead of targeting the more powerful classes for fear of a political backlash.
 

Colour My Life: a mother buys a colouring book for her daughter from a vendor outside a primary school. Photo: Rita Banerji

A popular rural project that’s been massively funded by this campaign is the planting of trees at the birth of a daughter. The logic behind planting trees is that fathers of girls can harvest these trees to pay dowry. Encouraging the custom of dowry, the very factor contributing to female genocide, contradicts the campaign’s aims. Two of the most important and likely to be effective projects suggested at the campaign’s inauguration unfortunately have not yet seen the light of day, and must be implemented.  One of these projects is putting up public boards that note the CSR of every neighbourhood, on a monthly basis, thereby forcing members of communities to be watchful of and accountable to each other. These particularly must be set up in urban, middle and upper class areas in coordination with police and legal cells for effective action.  

The second recommended project that must be implemented is the compulsory registration of all births and deaths of girl children. Additionally, there must be a system of compulsory monitoring of all girls till they reach the age of 15, as 95 % of girls are killed or go missing between the ages of 1-15 years. Indeed, the low CSR is often falsely assumed to be due to sex-selective abortion.

The breakdown of the CSR census data shows that more than 84% girls are actually killed from age one to six years.  Less than one million girls were eliminated through sex selection and/or killed as infants after birth and up to age one. But by age six, that number escalated and  7 million girls were exterminated. 

In order to save girls, the implementation of these two projects must be the campaign’s number one priority.

Rita Banerji is a writer, photographer and gender activist. Her book 'Sex and Power: Defining History, Shaping Societies' is a historical study of the relationship between gender, sexuality and power in India. She is the founder and director of The 50 Million Missing Campaign, a global campaign to end India's female gendercide. Twitter handle: @rita_banerji

This article was first published on openDemocracy.

 

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