12-07-2007, 02:02 AM
I am posting this in this thread because it is a major problem in Sikh community whether in India or abroad.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Rich but barbaric </b>
puoneer.com
Punjabis who migrate to the West carry their gender biases with them, writes Anuradha Dutt
Punjabi immigrants in the UK, the US and Canada have for long been the symbol of the expatriate Indian success story, boasting of an affluent lifestyle, which stirs the envy of their cousins. Sadly, they seem to have retained the worst aspects of their cultural baggage in respect of gender and marital relations.
One now increasingly reads about the high incidence of female foeticide among <b>Punjabi immigrants, especially Sikhs; of dowry related deaths and crimes; of females of the community being killed for the sake of family honour; and, forced marriages. </b>These practices, typical of Punjab's land-owning feudal milieu, have all been transposed to the adopted land.
The well off immigrant Punjabi community in Britain has lately been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Some weeks back, there was consternation over a report prepared by the First Great Western Rail Company, dealing with the spurt in suicides on railway tracks. The most shocking part of the report was the claim that a "disproportionately high number" of victims were Asian women, with 80 per cent being Punjabi.
<b>Apparently, one third of these suicides were found to have occurred along the rail track, which passed through Southall, an area dense with Punjabi Sikhs.</b> Media reports indicate that the victims were compelled to end their lives because of family pressures and abusive practices such as<b> victimisation over inadequate dowry and failure to bear sons.</b>
The community is again being subjected to unflattering critical scrutiny in the wake of an expose of its penchant for female foeticide, conducted by the BBC's Asian Network radio station. The report states that pregnant women go back to India for sex-determination tests and to abort unwanted female foetuses. Compounding the ignominy is a revelation made by the population experts of Oxford University that at least 1500 Indian baby girls are missing from birth-related statistics in Wales and England.
The abnormal increase in the proportion of boys over girls led to the distressing inference that there was sex-selective abortion among mothers. And both Indian-born and British-born women were guilty of destroying female foetuses. Living in the West had failed to free them of abhorrent traditional biases. They were British merely in nationality, remaining strongly feudal in their social responses.
<b>In Canada, where, again, Punjabis are in large numbers, advertisements for ultrasound clinics are reported to have appeared in Punjabi newspapers.</b> A Washington-based clinic finds mention. Britain's Observer reports that after the alarm raised over selective abortions, Indian -- read Punjabi -- women are going to India for ultrasound and abortions as these are cheaper and safer there.
<b>The practice of female foeticide is known to be rampant in Punjab, with the land-owning Jat Sikhs said to be the biggest culprits. </b>In fact, the 2001 national census showed that India's most prosperous State also had the most skewered male-female ratio, with land-owning Jat-dominated Haryana following closely behind.
<b>Punjab's Fatehgarh Saheb district was found to have the lowest child sex ratio in India, with 754 girls for 1000 boys.</b> Subsequent investigations suggest that the state government has failed to counter the malaise by trying to enforce the PNDT Act (Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique Act, 1994), which bans sex-determination tests and lays down penalties for the offence. Ultra sound is allowed only for detecting genetic flaws. But ultra sound and abortion clinics, disguised as maternity clinics, continue to thrive. Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that the sex ratio has fallen to 600 girls for 1000 boys in Punjab.
The genesis of the problem lies in existing social mores, which deny girls a share in ancestral land and property while considering them a liability on account of the huge expense to be incurred on their marriage by the natal family. The dearth of females has rebounded on the Jat community, both in Punjab and Haryana, with a vengeance as brides for prospective grooms are falling short. There is now a flourishing trade in supplying girls of diverse castes from Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and other poor States for a hefty price. The irony is that it is not dowry that is demanded but bride price that has to be paid by the groom's family.
Acknowledging the gravity of the situation, the Akal Takht on April 13, 2001, issued an ultimatum against female foeticide. The highest Sikh authority threatened offenders with ostracism, but with little effect. The SGPC, which governs Sikh affairs, recently declared that unwanted baby girls should be given up for adoption to gurdwaras instead of being killed. Old habits, however, die hard.
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Rich but barbaric </b>
puoneer.com
Punjabis who migrate to the West carry their gender biases with them, writes Anuradha Dutt
Punjabi immigrants in the UK, the US and Canada have for long been the symbol of the expatriate Indian success story, boasting of an affluent lifestyle, which stirs the envy of their cousins. Sadly, they seem to have retained the worst aspects of their cultural baggage in respect of gender and marital relations.
One now increasingly reads about the high incidence of female foeticide among <b>Punjabi immigrants, especially Sikhs; of dowry related deaths and crimes; of females of the community being killed for the sake of family honour; and, forced marriages. </b>These practices, typical of Punjab's land-owning feudal milieu, have all been transposed to the adopted land.
The well off immigrant Punjabi community in Britain has lately been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Some weeks back, there was consternation over a report prepared by the First Great Western Rail Company, dealing with the spurt in suicides on railway tracks. The most shocking part of the report was the claim that a "disproportionately high number" of victims were Asian women, with 80 per cent being Punjabi.
<b>Apparently, one third of these suicides were found to have occurred along the rail track, which passed through Southall, an area dense with Punjabi Sikhs.</b> Media reports indicate that the victims were compelled to end their lives because of family pressures and abusive practices such as<b> victimisation over inadequate dowry and failure to bear sons.</b>
The community is again being subjected to unflattering critical scrutiny in the wake of an expose of its penchant for female foeticide, conducted by the BBC's Asian Network radio station. The report states that pregnant women go back to India for sex-determination tests and to abort unwanted female foetuses. Compounding the ignominy is a revelation made by the population experts of Oxford University that at least 1500 Indian baby girls are missing from birth-related statistics in Wales and England.
The abnormal increase in the proportion of boys over girls led to the distressing inference that there was sex-selective abortion among mothers. And both Indian-born and British-born women were guilty of destroying female foetuses. Living in the West had failed to free them of abhorrent traditional biases. They were British merely in nationality, remaining strongly feudal in their social responses.
<b>In Canada, where, again, Punjabis are in large numbers, advertisements for ultrasound clinics are reported to have appeared in Punjabi newspapers.</b> A Washington-based clinic finds mention. Britain's Observer reports that after the alarm raised over selective abortions, Indian -- read Punjabi -- women are going to India for ultrasound and abortions as these are cheaper and safer there.
<b>The practice of female foeticide is known to be rampant in Punjab, with the land-owning Jat Sikhs said to be the biggest culprits. </b>In fact, the 2001 national census showed that India's most prosperous State also had the most skewered male-female ratio, with land-owning Jat-dominated Haryana following closely behind.
<b>Punjab's Fatehgarh Saheb district was found to have the lowest child sex ratio in India, with 754 girls for 1000 boys.</b> Subsequent investigations suggest that the state government has failed to counter the malaise by trying to enforce the PNDT Act (Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technique Act, 1994), which bans sex-determination tests and lays down penalties for the offence. Ultra sound is allowed only for detecting genetic flaws. But ultra sound and abortion clinics, disguised as maternity clinics, continue to thrive. Britain's Daily Telegraph reports that the sex ratio has fallen to 600 girls for 1000 boys in Punjab.
The genesis of the problem lies in existing social mores, which deny girls a share in ancestral land and property while considering them a liability on account of the huge expense to be incurred on their marriage by the natal family. The dearth of females has rebounded on the Jat community, both in Punjab and Haryana, with a vengeance as brides for prospective grooms are falling short. There is now a flourishing trade in supplying girls of diverse castes from Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and other poor States for a hefty price. The irony is that it is not dowry that is demanded but bride price that has to be paid by the groom's family.
Acknowledging the gravity of the situation, the Akal Takht on April 13, 2001, issued an ultimatum against female foeticide. The highest Sikh authority threatened offenders with ostracism, but with little effect. The SGPC, which governs Sikh affairs, recently declared that unwanted baby girls should be given up for adoption to gurdwaras instead of being killed. Old habits, however, die hard.
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