Indian girl-boy sex ratio at an all time low!

Despite the positive news that are coming out of media like the following:
1. India officials catch doctor engaged in sex-selection abortion, faces Jail
2. Popularity of 'only-girl child' seats in Panjab University
3. 12 sex determination centers sealed by government after surprize night time raids in Uttar Pradesh
4. The medical community protests against female foeticide by marching on the streets of Delhi

.... there are also news that still shock me ....

ActionAID had declared last month that the sex ratio is only dipping downwards. No amount of awareness or people talking about the consequences of the unbalanced ratio is having an impact on the society. Why? India's sex selection crisis is worsening as per Action Aid and now we have another proof to Action Aid's claims. I had discussed the case of Nawanshahar (Punjab) on this blog earlier as well. Once again, Nawanshahar is in the news. A few years ago, it had stood as an example of reversing the trend of declining sex ratio when an able police officer had taken the situation in his hands like I discussed here, but now that he is gone, situation has been going downhill again. As Punjab News Line reports:

In the current year, the male-female sex ratio till April was just 796, a big decline from 909 in 2006 when the district had come from behind to top the state in the matter. At that time, this was made possible by some extraordinary steps which included strict enforcement measures in the shape of regular monitoring of scanning centres and clinics by the then DC Krishan Kumar and subsequent registration of cases against the erring centres and persons.

What shocks, hurts, and surprizes me the most is that women who are giving birth to children now are in the same age group as I am. Most of them must be born in late 70z or early 80z. I am an early 80 born. If I feel so strongly about equality of both genders, why are women (the city bred variety) my age who had a similar exposure to life, media, world et al as me giving into cultural pressures? Why are they aborting their daughters? Why are the women I might have gone to school with not valuing their own gender enough to let it survive? Why are reports coming out that female foeticide is only accelerating as opposed to deccelerating as it should with the new generation growing up? Generations are undergoing changes but our cultural mindset still remains the same. Why? Why can't women (and men) think for themselves and beyond what society imposes on them? Why can't all of us have independently rational minds?

Am I asking for too much? Perhaps I am because if an independent mind was a common entity, religion would never have become a priority in the lives of the majority of human race as it is now. I don't like when pessimism grips me but I do sincerely feel this is a lost cause. News from all the way across the world from Egypt also state that 2/3 of Egyptian men admit to sexually harassing women. What gets to me the most is the following trend that I did notice in India as well:

"The vast majority of women did nothing when confronted with sexual harassment," the survey said, adding that most Egyptian women believed the victim should "remain silent."

Of course, they have to remain silent or else they'd be gang-molested as two girls on New Year's eve this year in Mumbai when they spoke back to a group of men uttering profanities. I remained silent in India too every time I had ugly eyes stripping me and calling me words I wouldn't want anyone other than my husband saying. I remained silent in Egypt too when a policeman with a gun said 'I love you' to me on an empty street and no one around.

A shame really.