Dr. Shanti Ghosh

Dr. Shanti Ghosh, a respected Indian pediatrician and senior health consultant with the United Nations, was one those who put “girl child” concerns squarely on the South Asian agenda. What follows are excerpts from a conversation with Dr. Ghosh in New Delhi.

HIMAL: Why is there this sudden focus on the young girl?

Ghosh: In 1985, the United Nations Decade for Women had ended, but the people concerned seemed to have forgotten about the status and needs of the female child, who ultimately becomes a woman. The whole issue of boy preference was also coming into stark focus with the increasing misuse of amniocentesis to determine the fetus’ sex, to abort if it were female. Out of a conversation with Razia Ismail, UNICEF’s information officer in Delhi, a workshop was organised. Since then there have been several seminars and meetings and there has been a spurt in research. SAARC has now designated 1990 as the Year of the Girl Child.

HIMAL: Are people more educated now than before about the girl 4 child’s world?

GHOSH: I would say so. Among the professionals in the field, there is definitely an awareness. More people are looking at what had been taken for granted before. There are more research and studies which point to the girl child’s status.

HIMAL: And what exactly is the girl’s status?

GHOSH: To begin with, there is quite clearly discrimination in feeding. A study in Uttar Pradesh reported that during mealtimes sons had better access to milk, eggs and butter than daughters. There is also discrimination in breastfeeding. Data show that the interval between births is shorter after the birth of a girl. In medical terms, this would indicate that the girl has been breast fed less. Among certain groups, the annaprashan ceremony arrives earlier for girls, which again means that they are weaned earlier from mother’s milk.

HIMAL: What about sickness and death?

GHOSH: Well, research shows that while on the one hand boys are more readily taken to the doctor and to hospital, the morbidity among girls is actually higher. In one primary health clinic, on the average more than 43 boys were brought in for every 15 girls. Girls can also be taken to less qualified village “doctors”. Overall, research data, as well as anthropological and ethnographic evidence, shows that childcare of female children is worse in the Northern states of India than in the South.

HIMAL: How much is this a function of sheer destitution?

GHOSH: But this is not a question of poverty! If it were destitution, both girl and boy should suffer equally. But if their son falls ill, the parents willingly sink into debt in order to treat him, but often this is not so if their daughter takes sick. No, this discrimination goes on and on. The girl is laden with household chores, cooking, minding the baby. She drops out of school when the demands at home become too much. She reaches adolescence and is not to go out. The pressure is then on to get her married, or to court badnami if something untoward happens. All these social, traditional pressures succeed in keeping the girl at the bottom rung.

HIMAL: So things are not getting better for the girl?

GHOSH: In many ways there is a worsening trend. Take the system of dowry. Even among communities that did not practice it before, today there is dowry. The materialism is mind boggling. But whatever the negatives,the level of consciousness is being raised. A lot of data is being collected and thinking people are looking for an answer. Women must learn more about themselves, gain more confidence, be more self-reliant. Much of this must begin with the girl. A lot of people are trying to make this happen.