Tales of battered babies and skewed sex ratio
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: April 13, 2012 -

In a similar enactment of last month's case of two-year-old battered baby girl Falak losing her battle for life, succumbing to a cardiac arrest at AIIMS, Delhi on March 15; Baby Afreen, another battered three-month-old baby girl met her tragic end at Vani Vilas Hospital, Bangalore on Wednesday (April 11).

On January 18 last, Baby Falak was brought to AIIMS in a severely battered state by a teenage girl who falsely claimed to be her mother.

With horrific injuries including a broken arm, smashed skull, cheeks branded with hot iron and human bite marks all over her tiny body, Baby Falak was hospitalized in the trauma centre of AIIMS where she fought for survival through five operations, two cardiac arrests and a meningitis infection until her last breath on March 15.

During the entire course of treatment spanning 58 days, Baby Falak displayed immense courage bearing all the harsh medical surgeries and thus earned the sobriquet of "miracle baby".

On the other hand, three-month-old Baby Afreen, who was battling for life at the Bangalore hospital after being allegedly tortured by her son-obsessed father, passed away on Wednesday. Baby Afreen was admitted to the hospital on Sunday (April 8) with cigarette burns on her head and a dislocated neck.

Unlike in the case of Baby Falak, whose real parents were not even known, father of Baby Afreen has been arrested following a complaint by her mother and subsequently, confessed to police that he tried to kill the child as he wanted a boy and not a girl.

Understandably, the tragic end of the two battered babies has provoked widespread outrage and condemnation. But such stories, howsoever sad they may be, are not something unusual in a rigid patriarchal social set up like ours where neglect and abuse of girl child is rampant.

Against the backdrop of these two tragic stories, we may pause and reflect upon declining sex ratio, more particularly, child sex ratio in Manipur over the last few decades.

As per Census, 2011, the sex ratio of Manipur is said to be 987 females for every 1000 males, which is below the national average of 940. With regard to child sex ratio, it is 934 girls as against 1000 boys in Manipur.

In 2001, the sex ratio of female was 978 per 1000 males in Manipur. While this rapid decline in child sex ratio has vindicated the notion that Manipur would soon become a land of wailing widows with more and more male members falling victims to the prevailing armed conflict and drug problems, it has also raised serious concern over prevalence of possible wide spread female foeticide/infanticide in the state.

Although we could not make a conclusive statement on the matter, it definitely calls for pro-active measures from the side of the state government to find out why there is a skewed sex ratio in Manipur over the decades.

The government should find out whether there is any failure in implementation of Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994 which came into force in Manipur since 2003.

Earlier, there have been reports that in spite of enforcement of the Act, pre-natal sex determination and female foeticide continued to strive in all the 38 registered healthcare centres spread across the state. But we have not come across any reports of action taken up by the government authorities to check the practice.

To brush aside the issue as something irrelevance to the land of Nupi Lans and Meira Paibi movement would be an understatement.

Even though stories of Baby Falak and Baby Afreen have made headlines, who knows how many more may have gone unnoticed from among our midst through life.