Is “selfie,” the 2013 Oxford word of the year, harmful for human beings? This popular modern-day phenomenon, of taking self-portrait photographs with smartphone and sharing them online, may have evoked intense debate among psychiatrists about the risk involved, but Indian Premier Narendra Modi, his drumbeaters claim, have exploited the very medium astutely to try and transform social mindsets.
In his weekly interaction with the nation via radio, Modi proposed a “selfie with daughter” campaign in support of India’s endangered girl child. But, none have explained thus far how this tokenism can inspire Indian families to uphold the girl child’s rights when a vast majority of Indians, surviving on pittance, cannot afford high-tech gadgets or indulge in selfie spree.
Though, Modi is accused of plagiarizing the idea of a village head from north India’s Haryana state, who originally initiated this social media campaign to promote the girl child and improve the province’s sex ratio count of 841 females to 1,000 males, many see this as a game changer in a nation, notoriously known for parents dumping daughters just because they, supposedly, cannot bring prosperity to the family. Modi’s government in fact launched the “Beti-Bachao, Beti Padhao” (save and educate the girl child) campaign in January this year in an effort to tackle the declining ratio of girls to boys aged below six years.
Indeed, there is no place for the girl child in a rising India as child sex ratio (CSR) reached “emergency proportions,” declining to 918 women per 1,000 men in 2011 and thereafter got an upward push due to former premier Manmohan Singh’s special emphasis on social development sector. As there are 942 females for every 1,000 males in India currently — which virtually means Indian society simply disallowed the existence of approximately 58 million women — UN Women’s Lakshmi Puri’s words should reverberate through every sensible Indian’s mind.
At the launch of the UN’s study report “Sex Ratios and Gender Biased Sex Selection: History, Debate and Future Directions” in 2014, Puri lamented the pathetic condition of girl child in India and asserted that “it is tragically ironic that the one who creates life is herself denied the right to be born.” Indeed, ironic it is that one of the fastest growing economies in the world is still grappling with skewed CSR as even the UN has warned of serious consequences. “The CSRs have fallen most precipitously during a period of unprecedented economic growth. It has emanated from northern and northwestern India, regions which may be characterized as being in the wake of the Green Revolution and whose levels of prosperity therefore require more careful calibration.” the UN warned in its report released by Puri.
The report goes on to add, “India’s declining child sex ratio speaks of a culture in which gender inequality is deeply ingrained. Gender biased sex selection is a manifestation of the subordinate status of women in society with far reaching socio-demographic consequences. Gender equality and gender justice is a direct casualty of this practice.”
It is pretty evident from UN’s observation that an apparently shining India is bitterly biased against women who suffer from widespread inequality in almost every field of endeavor and even discriminated against in basic immunization process. As per the 2014 UN Human Development Report, India is placed at 127th position out of 152 countries in the gender-inequality-index and according to a World Economic Forum report India ranks 114 (out of 142 nations audited) in gender-gap-index with a measly score of 0.646, where 0 stands for inequality and 1 represents equality. And worse still, recent Word Bank data reveals that India’s maternal mortality ratio of 190, calculated on the basis of per 100,000 live-births, is far higher than most of the comparable nations worldwide.
Moreover, 68 percent of severely malnourished Indian children are girls, 90 percent of adolescent girls are chronically anemic while 40 percent are pressed into child marriage. Notwithstanding Modi’s high-pitched “development propaganda,” the fact is India cannot move an inch without empowering the girl child. And even the UN feels there is need for “higher investments in her nutrition, health and education.”
But the problem with India is her tech-savvy prime minister, who loves to operate in an unreal world, without the necessity of fulfilling commitments. And therefore Modi hijacked a socially important slogan and literally set the cyber world on fire. But on the ground, Modi’s administration drastically reduced allocations in schemes meant for protecting girl child and empowering their mothers. With a more than 50 percent cut in budgetary grant of the ministry of women and child development, health and education, it is quite evident that Modi is in no mood to deliver on the “right to education” and ensure health and well-being of children at the grassroots.
It does not bother him that this huge slash will effectively put an end to the government’s flagship “integrated child development scheme” and “national nutrition mission.” Besides, the Modi government has also trimmed the plan of setting up a rape crisis center in every district despite an increase in child-sexual-abuse. So, what explains Modi’s strange behavior? Is he not rooted to the ground? Selfie-obsession, experts say, has a strong underlying narcissistic streak. A study, examining the relationship of selfie-indulgence with human psychology, has pinpointed the presence of subclinical psychological disorder, which leads to the loss of objectivity in an individual. Does this explain Modi’s inability to understand that India’s girl-child needs much more than a selfie campaign?
