GENDER
ISSUES IN HEALTH IN HARYANA
Dr. R.S.
Dahiya
Ex.
Sr.Prof,Surgery, PGIMS, Rohtak.
It is a well established fact that the
biologically women are a stronger sex. In societies where women and men are
treated equally, women outlive men and there are more women than men in adult
populations. More girls die during course of pregnancy in our country.
Naturally there are about 93 girls for
100 boys at birth as the more boys die in infancy& ratio is balanced. The
unequal status, unequal access to resources and lack of decision making power
experienced by girls and women because of their gender would result in
disadvantages in health. These disadvantages include a higher likelihood of
exposure to health, greater susceptibility to adverse health consequences as a
result of the exposure, and a lower probability of receiving timely,
appropriate and adequate health care.
·
It is widely acknowledged on the bases of studies done in diverse
settings, that inequalities in health across population groups arise largely as
a consequence of differences in social and economic status and differential
access to power and resources. The heaviest burden of ill health is borne by
those who are most deprived, not just economically, but also in terms of
capabilities such as literacy levels and access to information. In the words of
Noble Laureate Amartya Sen, India, with its present
·
population of 1 billion has to account for some 25 million missing women.
Police
data shared with TOI has revealed that 70% of the missing people in 2023 are
women (774) and minor girls (359) till November this year.
On the top of that in a modern world of
today this discrimination has not allowed a gender sensitive language to
develop. There is mankind but no woman kind; there is house wife but no house
husband; there is house mother but no house father; kitchen maid is there but
no kitchen man. The unmarried woman crosses the threshold from bachelor girl to
spinster to old maid but the unmarried man is always bachelor.
Discrimination means ‘treating one or
more members of a specified group unfairly as compared with other people.’ A
convention on this issue was held on the elimination of ACI forms of
discrimination against woman (CEDAW) by the United Nations in 1979. The gender
discrimination in that convention was defined as:
“any
distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the
effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or
exercise by women, irrespective of their material status, on a basis of
equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the
political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field”. This gender
discrimination emanates from an ideology that favours men and boys and
undervalues women and girls. It is perhaps one of the most widespread and
pervasive forms of discrimination. Measures of gender empowerment measure (GEM)
show that there is gender discrimination worldwide. In many countries,
especially from the developing world, a much larger proportion of women than
men are illiterate. World- wide women occupy only 26.7
% of parliament seats. Practically in all countries, developing as well as
industrialized, women’s participation in the labour market is lower than that
of men, women are paid less for equal work and work many more hours doing
unpaid labour as compared to men. The most blatant expression of discrimination
against female is the practice of sex determination in the womb and then
selective sex abortion. Modern technology has now come to the aid of
perpetuating culture of discrimination This resulted in a decline in the
proportion of females as compared to males in Haryana in past years and many
other states of India.
Women issues are at great
discomfort in Haryana. Pockets – in southern Haryana, shows not only excess
female mortality, but lacks in female literacy, in provision of basic
amenities, in their health care, hygiene, sanitation and all related variables.
Patriarchy works in a dangerous way to undermine women’s right to dignified
lives. The lower sex ration is a fall out of high prevalence of female
feticide, child marriage and prevalence of son preference . Literacy is still
low and it ranks 24th in all India. Large gender gap shows that practical
commitment to girl education is not very strong - links with deep rooted
features of gender relations Adolescence age- insularity against diseases is
compromised by early marriages. Maternal morbidity is high. Poverty is
increasingly becoming feminized - mainly on account of the fact that over a
period of time, women work participation has decreased. Their employability and
work opportunities have reduced. Crime against women have increased and traditional
patriarchal systems keeps women in lower rung of social hierarchy. Absence of
control over illegal institutions make situation worse for women. (Dr
Rajeshwari KUK)
Overall, more females die during pregnancy
than do males. So that's why there's an excess number of males at birth,” said
Orzack, who has published research on this issue.24-Jan-2019
After
birth more male children die . Infant mortality rate is higher in boys than
girls.NFHS 5
The highest sex ratio was observed in
Mewat at 907, followed by Fatehabad at 902, as per Census 2011.
According
to the Census of 2021,
Child sex
ratio (0-6 Age Group) of Haryana is 902 females per 1000 males.
Sex Ratio
in Haryana
According
to last Census of India in 2011, Haryana has the lowest sex ratio (834 females)
in India. The state is known all over
India for female feticide. However, with Government schemes and initiatives,
the sex ratio in Haryana has started to show an upward movement. The state
recorded a child sex ratio (0-6 age group) of over 900 for the first time in
December, 2015. This is the first time since 2011 that Haryana sex ratio
crossed the 900 mark.
The
highest sex ratio was observed in Mewat at 907, followed by Fatehabad at 902,
as per Census 2011.
Haryana’s
gender ratio was 903 (2016) according to state’s health department. .
According
to the Census of 2021,
Child sex
ratio (0-6 Age Group) of Haryana is 902 females per 1000 males. May be very
slight improvement in 2023
Haryana’s skewed sex ratio reflects in
adoption data too.
Providing
specific details about adoption applications received from Haryana, CARA’s
central public information officer said the current waiting list for adoption
of female children in Haryana is 367 and the waiting list for the adoption of
male child in Haryana is 886. Haryana’s skewed sex ratio reflects ..
The gender discrimination has got its roots
in our older cultural practices and way of living also, of course it has got a
material base. The cultural practices of Haryana have a gender bias. At the
time of birth of a boy, it is celebrated by beating a ‘Thali’ whereas the birth
of a girl is mourned (matka phorna) in one way or the other; at the time of
delivery, if a child is male, the mother will be given 10Kg ghee (do dhari
ghee) and if a child is female, the mother will be given 5 Kg ghee; the sixth day
(chhath) of a male child will be celebrated; the namkaran sanskar will be done
if the child is male; the girls are not allowed to fire the funeral of the
family members some where as the can burn mounds of wood in chulha at home . As
the number of woman is going down in Haryana, they are becoming more insecure
in the society. The violence in home and outside has increased in Haryana and
is affecting the health of women adversely. The news papers carry many news
items daily in this regard. Health department Haryana also behaves as the whole
society behaves on the gender issues. The number of gynecologists in govt.
hospitals is very meager compounding the women’s health still further.
Rape cases up as Haryana sees sharp
rise in crimes against women. The data shows there were 944 rape cases in 2014,
839 in 2015, 802 in 2016, 955 in 2017, 1178 in 2018, 1360 in 2019, 1211 in 2020
and 1546 in 2021.
(04-Mar-2022
https://www.dailypioneer.com
› rap...)
The
number of dowry deaths from the period of January 1 to July 11, a total of 13
deaths have been recorded, in 2022 whereas, this number stood at 4 in 2021.(9
deaths more)
(24-Jul-2022
https://www.tribuneindia.com
› news)
In Indian
context also according to the NCRB ,as of 2018 the majority of crimes against women were registerd under cruelty by
Husband or His Relatives (31.9%) followed by Assault on women with intention to
outrage her modesity(27.6%), kidnapping and abduction of women (22.5%) and
Rape(30%).The crime rate per lakh women population was 58.8% in 2018 as
compared to 57.9% in 2017
Haryana is also infamous for crimes
against women and its share in sexual crimes in India is 2.4 per cent, more
than Punjab and Himachal. Around 32 per cent women are victims of spousal
violence. Besides, 88 cases of child sex abuse, and 93 cases of rape had been
registered every month since 2015.
(04-Aug-2018
https://www.tribuneindia.com
› news)
The unregistered cases are many more.
This indicates that the price of women or the importance of woman has not
increased by the decrease of their number as conceived by many people in
Haryana.
Similarly if there is some increase , even
then the atrocities on women are not coming down. Violence affects the health
of women in many ways.
Even today women have to go through many
struggles, small and big. Women have achieved this day on the strength of their
struggles and on this occasion women should fight against discrimination,
injustice and all kinds of oppression.
Because even today, no value is assessed for
the work done by women, whereas money has to be paid in the market for the same
work. Women themselves are also unable to register their work which they should
get done. He told that women have more stamina than men and they raise their
children even in very bad conditions.
.
Think of a situation that in a dream when a man had to go through the
trouble of getting pregnant and giving birth to a child. That's when she felt
the pain of labor. That's why men should also realize that women have to go
through a lot of hardships while giving birth to a child and men can never bear
those pains. But unfortunately, the whole process of producing and raising a
child is never recorded as a big task.
Women need justice, respect and equality
the most, that is why they have to struggle again and again. Whereas there is
no difference between male and female except physical structure. But even then,
women do not get all the opportunities that they deserve.
The other thing which is happening
in most of the villages of Haryana is that the number of unmarried males is
increasing. Beyond 30 years of age, many males can be seen without marriage in
each village. Unemployment is increasing amongst boys and girls both. Also
there seems to be increasing trend of impotency in males because of multiple
factors. The purchase of bridegrooms is becoming an accepted cultural practice
in most of the villages. All these factors are adding the miseries of the women
in Haryana. Side by side son preference and the under-valuation of daughter
manifests itself in discriminatory practices against daughters such as well
being, including, premature and preventable death of female child.
The data
from the National Family Health Survey – 5 and NFHS 4
The data
from the National Family Health Survey 5 gives latest information as follows--
Infant and Child Mortality Rates(per1000 live births )
Neonate
Mortality Rate..NNMR.. ..21.6
Infantil
Mortality Rate(IMR)..33.3
Under
Five Mortality Rate(U5MR)..38.7
Children
under 5 years who are stunted (height for age)%..27.5
Children
under 5 years who are wasted (weight for height)%..11.5
Children
under 5 years who are severely wasted (weight for height)%..4.4
Children
under 5 years who are underweight (weight for age)%..21.5
Children
under 5 years who are over weight (weight for height)%..3.3
Anaemia
among children
Children
age 6-59 months who are anaemic ( less than 11 g/dl)%..70.4 NFHS 4-71.7
Anaemia is very high almost same as in
earlier survey. Diet intake has improved by 4.3 % but still very low percentage
.
V . Gupta
et all have found in their study that stunting and underweight were more
prevalent amongst girls.
. The median duration of breast feeding for
girls has been slightly lower than the median duration of breast feeding for
boys .
. This deprivation in childhood contributes
to substantial proportions of women being malnourished and stunted as adults.
Pregnant
women age 15--49 years who are anaemic NFHS-5( Hb less than 11gm) are 56.5 %
whereas they were 55% in NFHS- 4.
It has
increased in last five years or so . All women age 15-19 years 62.3 % where as
29.9 % men of this age are anaemic. Clear gender difference here.
For a
significant proportion of adolescent Indian girls, an early marriage followed
soon after by a pregnancy is the norm.
About 25 per cent of women aged 18-29 and
15 per cent of men aged 21-29 got married before reaching the minimum legal age
of marriage, according to the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS)
conducted between 2019-21.
The women have no say on sexuality and
reproduction. Child bearing in adolescence affects women adversely in many
ways; socially, economically, psychologically and physically. It truncates
their education, limits their income-earning opportunities and burdens them
with responsibilities at an age when they aught to be exploring life. In
developing countries, early childhood bearing carries a greater relative risk
of dying in pregnancy and delivery as compared to woman in the 20-24 age .
India’s
maternal mortality rate-
(MMR) improved to 103 for the period 2017-19,
but the ratio has worsened in states such as West Bengal, Haryana, Uttarakhand
and Chhattisgarh, according to official data just released.
It is
very unfortunate that our legal system has not been able to remove the existing
social biases. Despite the constitutional guarantee of equality between men and
women the law implementing agencies failed in their execution. That is the
reason the women also often lack the authority to make their health care
decisions for themselves. Though half a century has elapsed after framing of
constitution, our social customs have not changed to match the spirit of the
constitution. Still customary laws and traditions are given prefrance over
constitutional commitment in combination with patriarchal norms that deny women
the right to make decisions regarding their sexuality , reproduction and
health. Women are exposed to avoidable risks of morbidity and mortality in
Haryana.
Dr.
R.S.Dahiya
Ex Senior
Professor,
PGIMS, Rohtak.
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