Are we becoming insensitive as a race?! It may seem a question out of the blue but this feeling certainly crosses our minds once in a while. We don’t need to cudgel up our brains to answer this question because on some level we already know the answer. Just open your morning newspaper or turn on any news channel and you’d know what am I talking about. Insensitivity encompasses us in various forms today.
A look at India’s census reveals a country obsessed by boys and sex-selection laws that no one will enforce. The continuing female feticide explains why the child sex ratio is getting worse. The latest census shows that the gap between the numbers of girls per 1,000 boys up to the age of six has broadened to 914, a decrease from 927 a decade ago, at the 2001 census. That puts me in a state of quandary. As a country are we moving forward or sliding backwards?
Whenever such numbers emerge the ugly blame game and pointing fingers begins. Well, fair enough. If we are pointing fingers then let us point it at ourselves first. We are, in some way or the other responsible for such numbers.
The government created a visual image of an “Ideal Family” with “Hum Do Humare Do” with the noble reason of birth control but knowingly or unknowingly propagated the portrayal of a boy and a girl as an “ideal family” ingraining it so deeply into the psyche that today the possibility of a second girl child has become out of question. We advertising people too intentionally or inadvertently contributed to that.
We are portraying this ideal family and hence denying the opportunity of a second girl child. According to a study released by Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR) “analysis of the trends examined from the statistics of the census of year 2011, 2001, 1991 note a sharp decline in the girl-to-boy sex ratio for second order births when the first-born was a girl. “The estimated number of selective abortions in the 1980s were around two million, the number rose to around four million in the 1990s, and was between 3.1 to six million in the 2000s. Each 1 percent decline in girl-to-boy sex ratio at ages 0-6 years translates to 1.2 to 3.6 million more selective female abortions,” the study said. Now compare our insensitivity with others where indirectly we are preventing the birth of so many girl children. We never think about the repercussions of showing such a sexual bias! And if you still choose to be so obstinately insensitive then you can very well join the list of terrorists.
This phenomenon is rampant in urban and rural areas thanks to medical technology of pre birth sex determination which has penetrated deeply into the rural areas. DTH penetration is very high in such areas and so we have the opportunity to change this perception of an “Ideal Family” by portraying 2 girls instead of 1 girl and 1 boy, thereby influencing millions to change their perceptions. The latest census reports are evident that we are committing the same errors even today. We need to be sensitive in what we portray and how we portray. As communication agencies we shoulder great responsibilities and onus to undo the damage which we’ve knowingly or unknowingly done. Imagine a world few years from now where you’d never get to see sisters together!
(The author is National Creative Director, Leo Burnett)
