If, in spite of science and conjecture, the grandparents want only a boy and not a girl child, they have to blame their son and not daughter-in-law.
Viwanath Gujar and Taramati, both labourers from Beed in Maharashtra, wanted to give up their newborn daughter in an orphanage as they wanted a son but not a daughter.
In XYZ village of Haryana, a man and his wife poured kerosene on their daughter-in-law and tried to set fire to her, but timely intervention by neighbours saved the woman. The in-laws were angry that their daughter-in-law gave birth to girl child for the third time, and not a boy.
In ABC village of Bihar, a man beat up his wife with a belt severely and the profusely bleeding woman was hospitalised, in a critical condition. Her crime? She gave birth to a girl child for the second time.
In PQR town of Andhra Pradesh, a man, abetted by his parents, aborted the pregnancy of his wife after giving a bribe and learning from the ultrasonic test that the foetus is female.
The unlettered and even the educated are ignorant on the birth of a baby. Ignorance of science and blind beliefs contribute to the sorrow state of affairs. The sex of foetus is determined by nature and is a conjecture.
Is the mother responsible for the birth of a girl child? Let us see logically what cellular science says.
One Thousand is 1 followed by three zeros, one million is one thousand thousands (1,000,000), one billion is thousand millions (1,000,000,000), one trillion is one thousand billions (1,000,000,000,000). An adult male or female human being is made of nearly 100 trillion cells. The cell is the basic building block of the human being as well as every living organism.
The human body is composed of trillions of cells. They provide structure for the body, take in nutrients from the food, convert nutrients into energy, and carry out specialised functions. Cells also contain the body’s hereditary material and can make copies of themselves.
In humans, each cell normally contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46. Twenty-two of these pairs, called autosomes, look the same in both males and females. The 23rd pair, the sex chromosomes, differ between males and females. Females have two copies of the X chromosome, while males have one X and one Y chromosome.
For the embryo, the woman contributes only X chromosomes and if the man also contributes X chromosomes, then the child will have both X chromosomes and thus a girl is born. If the man contributes Y chromosome, the child will have X and Y chromosomes and be a boy. Thus it is clear that the man plays a decisive role in deciding the sex of the foetus. An amazing truth, and a wonder why it is not given wide publicity. The innocent wife is always blamed for the birth of the girl child, whereas the culprit-husband joins the chorus, blaming and punishing her.
If this fact gets publicised, the blame game will ease, providing the much needed relief to the woman and perhaps we might be saving thousands of crimes perpetrated on womenfolk as a punishment for the “sin” of giving birth to a girl.
If, in spite of science and conjecture, the grandparents want only a boy and not a girl child, they have to blame their son and not daughter-in-law. And in a lighter vein, if the couple want a son, not a daughter, and want to conduct a religious ceremony (vratam), it is the man who has to perform and not his wife!
(The writer is a retired Deputy General Manager (Electronics & Instrumentation) from a public sector enterprise)
Keywords: Female infanticide, abortion
Mr. Joseph S comments on the basis of arguing for argument's sake. There is neither science nor logic to back up his comment. Firstly, it is not the ovum which chooses the sperm, but the sperm that is fastest to break through the outer layer that decides the course of fertilisation. So Science phail.
Secondly, even if the ovum were to choose the sperm, there is nothing to suggest it chooses one with an X and not Y chromosome - there too the choice would be on a 50% probablilty, and the 50% arising because it is the male who donates the Y chromosome. If the male did not, then whatever the ovum chose would still result in an XX combination, i.e., Male. So, Logic also phail.
Hence Mr. Murthy is absolutely right in the above article 'Blame it on the father' - and as he suggests, the sooner we educate the foolish, the better.
If we are playing the blame game, I can offer a counter-argument to
this kind of reasoning. At the time of an intercourse, millions of
sperms are released into the female reproductive system. Probability
says that 50% will be carrying X chromosome and 50% Y chromosome. It
is the ovum (egg) that chooses from the first few sperms to arrive.
So, who do you think is to be blamed now? This is just to show the
absurdity of proceeding with this kind of reasoning. What happens in
the cellular level is not in our control (unless you are talking about
in-vitro fertilization)!! A man can control the type of sperms he
releases only to the extent that a woman can control her egg into
choosing the right sperm - it's not possible! To blame anyone for
anything is only going to highlight our foolish point of view about
this issue! For once, try looking at people as though they've been
made in the image of God! Then we'll be able to see why every baby in
this world is precious - both male and female!
Very relevant article! A fact known by a few, but then never spoken about as much as it should be. As a result, a lot of barbarity happens at different social layers, gets steeped into cultures, and justifies itself thereof.
This line of thought implicitly validates that having a girl child is a
burden and an undesirable situation, by focusing on who is to be blamed.
We should be questioning why is there blame in the first place?
Much as I appreciate the sentiment and the reasoning behind this article, I lament the poor
language, construction of sentences and the lack of coherence of thought in this article.
Nice article. This article should be encouraged by the govt and made more popular.
Dear Mr Ramana Murthy,
Being a science student, this is an obvious fact which I knew, but never thought about
its significance and relevance in the current scenario. I support your effort and hope
that it makes a difference in our lives.
The article is on who the blame should be? But that is not what is to be looked at today. If as the author says, the blame is shifted to male, does it solve the society’s problem? The outlook of the people and desire for a particular sex is the malady afflicting and society should be made to accept the creature in the womb as an additional resource replete with competencies and talent irrespective of sex. Without a change in mindset, any success in shifting the blame would result in a game lacking in luster with potential to foment an evil albeit differently. .
The Nature has the greatest way of rewarding persons and protecting the needy. If we look around where there are 2 girls in a family,invariably we can find that the father is a person who really understand women(Flirts, affairs, etc). The Nature blesses such fathers only girl child so that he can understand the need of his daughter and takes care of her.
Science differs. It is neither the man nor the woman. It is nature. As you know very well, diploid chromosomes (46) present in the germ or reproductive cells undergo meiosis (halving cell division) to produce sperms or ova which contain haploid chromosomes (23) thereby helping in maintaining the diploid nature. A Woman always produces ova containing X chromosomes because the diploid set is XX in all the cells of the female.
Whereas a male produces sperms having haploid or a single set of chromosomes that is either X or Y chromosomes which eventually determine the gender of the baby. A male produces spermatozoa having equal number of sperms having either X or Y chromosomes. Though the chromosomes from a male finally determine the gender of the baby, both X chromosome sperms and Y chromosome sperms are present in equal number in the semen. And no one knows (as far as my limited knowledge is concerned) which or what determines if the X chromosome or Y chromosome sperm fertilises
If what you have written is true, then sure publicising this whole thing will ease the
blame game for sure. Thanks for such a lucid explanation!!
While there cannot be any disagreement with a single point in this article, and one certainly shares the concerns of the author over the prevalence of such retrograde thinking and practice in parts of India, I honestly wonder how much impact this article would have in an English daily such as the Hindu. I am given to think (and I hope I am right) that a staggeringly large percentage of readers of the Hindu are already aware of the scientific facts published here, and would agree unreservedly with the point of the article. The real question is, how does this message reach the countryside, the remote parts of India's vast hinterland? Do MPs/MLAs, panchayats, rural schools, health centres and local/vernacular media play a pivotal role? If not, there's not much progress that can be made.
Female foeticide / infanticide is a crime. That needs to be addressed. And we also know that the gender determining chromosome is actually contributed by the male. But instead of trying to address the root cause of why baby girls are unwanted in India and punishing female foeticide / infanticide harshly, trying to transfer the blame from the mother to the father only seems to validate the point that girl children are a burden here.
Wish the Author tried to establish the fact that gender based crimes are a sad and gory reflection of the collapse of society as a whole in India rather than try to segregate the genders further by scientifically pointing out who exactly is responsible and raise a question as to why punish the women when the man is the one who is responsible.
The headline "Blame it on the father" clearly tries to show it as having a baby girl means there's someone who needs to be blamed. Stop female foeticide / infanticide, instead.
"If this fact gets publicized, the blame game will ease..."
The solution you mention if of short term nature. Giving birth to a girl
isn't any crime and no one is actually supposed to be 'blamed' for that.
What needs to be done is that issues like caste, dowry, superstition be
handled first because these are the foundations on which this whole
issue of girl infanticide is based upon.
This is an excellent article. I am not understanding why government is
not educating people by publicizing this info.
"If this fact gets publicised, the blame game will ease, providing the
much needed relief to the woman and perhaps we might be saving thousands
of crimes perpetrated on womenfolk as a punishment for the “sin” of
giving birth to a girl "
What is stated here is known to everyone who has studied biology in high school.
The author' suggestion, even if stated in jest, is stupid. Rather than apportioning
'blame' for the birth of a girl child, an event that should, in all truth, be celebrated,
efforts should be directed towards making people realize that girl children are
precious and are every bit (if not more) as valuable as their male counterparts.
It is true that our society lacks scientific temper. But female foeticide is common (if not more) among the educated and the well to do. Therefore, even if this simple scientific fact, that the father's chromosome is responsible for the birth of the male child and the not the mother's, is highly popularized nothing is really going to change unless the patriarchal mindset of the society in general changes. Equal right to property, right to education and choose one's career, abolition of dowry, reduction in the expensive marriages (may be the Bollywood and industrialists can take a lead on this and set an example), the over-glorification of gold are some of the basic practices which has to be enforced, popularized and adopted in order to bring changes in our society where every girl child will be safe and valued. The popular news channels and media in general popularise these.The vratam etc. for a male child will be found useless and also the huge population load will be reduced.
At the village level there is a multipurpose health worker who goes
around checking the pregnant mothers; she can start discussing about how
the sex of the baby is determined with the help of some chart. Even
though the villagers may not fully grasp it, the message that father's
vital contribution in this role will seep in slowly over the years.
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