Missing daughters

Sonali Khan, country director of Breakthrough, shares insights of her new campaign ‘Mission Hazaar’ that aims at reaching 1,000 girls per 1,000 boys sex ratio

“Where are the daughters of India ” questions Sonali Khan, vice-president and country director of Breakthrough, a global human rights organisation working towards making violence and discrimination against women and girls ‘unacceptable’. In her latest mission ‘Mission Hazaar’ Sonali speaks about the not-so-hidden agenda of how Indian families have long favoured sons over daughters, the distorted sex ratio, a society that is heading towards accommodating huge surplus of men and a profound shift in attitudes towards women.

“When we started working, we were largely focusing on domestic violence,” shares Sonali referring to the organisation’s much acclaimed campaign ‘Ring the Bell/Bell Bajao’ campaign. “Over the years we identified other areas and one of these was the issue of the skewed sex ratio. We also found that one of the states that was and still is affected by this issue is Haryana. It is a fact that the roots of son preference lie deep within the Indian culture itself. Traditionally, since we follow patriarchy, the bloodline passes through the male side. Also girls are ‘married out’, they join their husbands’ family and looks after their in-laws, not their own parents. And a son has always been considered a pension. As a result of this sort of mindset, we are presently facing the most distorted sex ratios in the world,” she shares.

“The key question that baffled our minds while brainstorming for this campaign was not the fact that girls were denied education rights or that they were not sent to schools but did girls actually exist in equal number compared to boys What we found out was perplexing! There are less than 914 girls for every 1,000 boys on an average. Soon we decided to get our act together and come out with ‘Mission Hazaar’ with an aim at reaching the figure of 1,000 girls per 1,000 boys in India because as per our surveys and studies, daughters in India are missing,” she adds.

Sonali goes on to explain that they conducted over 10,000 interviews and found that as many as 91 per cent of parents wanted boys. Also about 66 per cent of those who were surveyed added that they didn’t see women in public places post sunset. She adds, “We asked them if they really found the girls to be missing. They were asked upon their observations within their families, in schools, colleges and public spaces. The data that emerged after that was disturbing.”

Through this multi-media campaign she explains that they are also aiming at educating the masses about the consequences of what happens when women go missing at this rate and how it impacts the society. “Mission Hazaar is not merely about increasing the number of girls being born but also to look at how they are treated in the sense of access to nutrition, education and healthcare. Government policy can speed up this process too. As they have launched the ‘Beti bachao, beti padhao’ campaign, we are leveraging this opportunity to spread the message. It is important to sustain this effort so that change really happens.”

The campaign also celebrated ‘women’s right to mobility’ through a Delhi-Rohtak bike rally last month. Sonali says, “Breakthrough has been working in Rohtak for two years now and is one the worst affected as far as skewed sex ratio is concerned. Through the bike rally, we tried to make the women around us, in our homes, schools, colleges, market places, streets and public place — visible. The women riders covered a distance of over 80 km in nearly two hours. Lastly, we would like to put an end to gender-biased sex selection and reach a respectable figure of 1,000 girls for 1,000 boys. As to why is it so important I’ll repeat our tagline, “More women in the world will make it a better place for women.”