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Focus on `the unborn girl child'

By Our Special Correspondent

KOZHIKODE DEC. 10. A sense of shock and horror was the dominant tone in speeches at an awareness seminar organised at the Town Hall here today by the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) Urban-one project to rouse public conscience against female foeticides reported from many parts of the country.

The programme was organised to coincide with the 57th Human Rights Day, the focus of which is on `The unborn girl child', this year.

Inaugurating the seminar, the KPCC president, K. Muraleedharan, expressed the view that laws alone were not enough to safeguard women's rights and prevent medical termination of pregnancies (MTP) to get rid of female foetuses. ``What is needed is a change in our mindset since age-old customs and religious beliefs are at the root of the tendency shown by some groups in society to view girls as a burden,'' Mr. Muraleedharan said.

He said only through intensive awareness programmes could an attitudinal change be brought about to make the world a safer place for women.

The KPCC president said public opinion was already in favour of drastic measures to end atrocities against women. This was reflected in Parliament also where no one objected to the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani's speech in support of awarding capital punishment for rape. Even those who had been strongly arguing for abolition of capital punishment had not objected to Mr. Advani's suggestion.

T.P.M. Zaheer, MLA, who presided, remarked that female foeticide was an act of savagery in times of cloning. N.P. Bichi Koya, ICDS project officer, Sreemati Sriram, chairperson of the Kozhikode Corporation's standing committee for welfare, and V.P. Kunhimoosa, Corporation councillor, were among those who spoke.

Day observed

Our Staff Reporter writes from Kannur:

The district panchayat president, O.V. Narayanan, has said that human rights continued to be violated in the country in spite of the laws and institutions such as the Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Minorities and the National Commission Women intended to protect them.

Inaugurating a seminar on `human rights of unborn girl children' jointly organised by the Social Welfare Department and the District Human Rights Day Committee as part of the Human Rights Day observation here today, Mr. Narayanan said that women would not get due consideration as a human being in a society rooted in money power and male dominance. The notion that a girl child was a liability should be countered through women empowerment, he said.

The municipal chairperson, T.K. Noorunnisa, presided over the function.

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