Men should participate in empowering women: Chowdhury

Men should be involved in the process of improving the imbalanced sex ratio in the Asia Pacific region and help empower women, said Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury.

Addressing the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights (APCRSH) here, Chowdhury said: "We must start looking at the issue of imbalanced sex ratio holistically and get the men, especially the younger lot, involved in improving the condition.

"It is important to make the men realise that empowering women doesn't mean dis-empowering them. I think that it's time we listen to the men's point of view and use that to improve the situation," Chowdhury said.

India's population, according to the last census in 2001, was 1.03 billion, becoming the second country in the world after China to cross the one billion mark.
However, the sex ratio continues to be dismal. Between 1991-2001, 70 districts in 16 states and union territories in India recorded more than a 50-point decline in the child sex ratio.

In places like Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, the sex ratio is less than 900 girls to every 1,000 boys.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), with an increase in pre-natal son selection, which is rampant in most of the Asian countries, there is bound to be dire consequences.

"To begin with, this will lead to enormous pressure on the female population which will be heavily outnumbered by males.

"A growing number of men will be unable to find wives, which in turn will lead to rise in sexual violence and trafficking in women," Purnima Mane, deputy executive director of UNFPA, told IANS.

If the sex ratio remains the same by 2040-50, there will be a 28 million surplus male population in India.

Although it is believed that the preference for a male child in India and in many other Asian countries is because of cultural and economic reasons, Chowdhury said that she doesn't believe that this is the case.

"Look at China. It attracts the world's largest amount of foreign direct investments (FDI), yet its sex ratio is not ideal. Many prosperous families in India still prefer a son to a daughter.

"And as far as culture as concerned, I think it is simply a convenient excuse for people to oppress a gender," she said.

"At the end I think that in treating the imbalanced sex ratio, men should be made equal participants. Only then can the problem be solved," Chowdhury added.

Source: Indo-Asian News Service