Row Over Death After Abortion In Hyderabad

Victim Was Forced By In-Laws To Abort Female Foetus. When India was busy celebrating International Women’s Day, a group of women activists were protesting the death of a woman who was forced by her family to undergo an abortion to get rid of her five-month-old female foetus, which eventually led to her death. The activists, armed with a fact finding report, revealed the gory details of how 28-year-old M Vijayalakshmi died after a botched-up abortion which was carried out in a private nursing home in Nalgonda. 
    
Vijayalakshmi’s death has once again put the spotlight on thriving sex selective abortions and the grim girl child sex ratio in the state, they said. Nalgonda in fact has the third lowest girl child sex ratio in AP with 921 girls per 1,000 boys, with high preferences for boys. 
    
Vijayalakshmi died in Hyderabad on February 28, a day after she was admitted to a city hospital in a critical condition. 
    
Living with her in-laws in Burugadda in Huzurnagar mandal of Nalgonda, Vijaylakshmi was forced to go to a nursing home in Kodad for a sex determination test. When the in-laws found that it is a girl child, the pregnancy was terminated. Activists said that due to the incomplete abortion, Vijayalakshmi started bleeding excessively and developed sepsis. As her condition continued to deteriorate, she was rushed to a private hospital in Hyderabad, five days after the abortion. 
    
“She had three daughters and had delivered twin girls in her second pregnancy. Her third pregnancy was aborted and when she conceived for the fourth time, the family did not want another girl child and pushed her to abort after determining the sex of the foetus,” said D Kalpana Kumari, programme officer, Actionaid. 
    
Activists said that the nursing home in Kodad, a small town, was famous for sex selective abortions and the 28-yearold woman was allegedly not the first to die. “Locals told us that Lakshmi is probably the fifth one to die after a botched up abortion,” Suma Latha, an activist with Gramya Resource Centre for Women, said.
    
While the scanning centre at the nursing home is registered under PCPNDT Act, the facility is not registered under the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, they said. 
    
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) data suggests that more than 65% abortions are done by quacks and almost 15% of maternal deaths were due to septic abortions, which killed Vijayalakshmi. 
    
When contacted, Nalgonda district collector N Mukteswara Rao said he was yet to read the fact-finding report. “Whether a sex selective abortion has happened or not, we don’t know. In-laws are denying the information and the doctor said the woman was bleeding and he therefore carried out the abortion,” Rao said. “We have seized the scanning machine in nursing home,” he added. The activists submitted a memorandum to the district collector on Thursday seeking action against those involved.

The Child Brides Of Mahboobnagar In AP

From unplanned pregnancies, high infant and maternal deaths to unregulated doses of growth hormone, Mahboobnagar’s child brides face vicious health repercussions.

As is the mother, so is her daughter, says an old adage. As profound as it sounds, it is also bewildering when the mother is a child herself. In India, the transition from wife to mother, in the case of child marriages, usually occurs nearly a year after marriage as young couples expect to have their first child soon after their wedding.

Such is the story of Sirisha* (all names changed). Just when she had begun figuring out the physical changes in her body after attaining puberty, 12-year-old Sirisha was married off to a man more than double her age. At 13, Sirisha is a mother. Not only a victim of child marriage but also of an early and unplanned pregnancy.

Malnourished and crippled, she lies on a bed after her delivery.  Her eyes fixated on the new-born baby girl, she says, “I do not know what to do with this baby. I don’t understand how to take care of her.” Sirisha’s helplessness is evident as her parents wanted her to deliver the baby at home – an example of how home deliveries are such a dominant part of child marriages.

Sirisha hails from Mudwyn village in Makhtal mandal of Mahboobnagar district in Andhra Pradesh. A district report says that one in four deliveries takes place at home, in the absence of a skilled birth attendant. Mahboobnagar has the highest number of child marriages in the state. Over 52 per cent of girls below 18 are married in the district, claims a National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) report.

Why child marriages?
The majority of child marriages take place in Golla, Kurma and Lambada communities in this district, reveals Mamatha Raghuveer, Founder-Director, Tharuni (an NGO) and a member of the state-level committee on child rights. With Mahboobnagar district being a severely drought-hit district of Andhra Pradesh and its population dependent majorly on agriculture, child marriages are inevitable, given that they are performed with an intention of providing a secure life for their daughters.

 “Drought is a normal thing here. What is unusual is the rain,” quips Yadaiah, a farmer, who reflects the plight of farmers in Mahboobnagar and their financial instability. Yadaiah also got his daughter married when she was 14.

Emphasis on virginity is also inherent in child marriages. “Most of them look at a girl’s body as a site of family’s honour that should be sold off as quickly as possible before it is violated (at the youngest age),” explains Mamatha Raghuveer, adding “the younger, the better.”

This also raises concerns over the age at which girls become sexually active. Women who are married before the age of 18 have more children than those who marry later in life, a UNICEF report claims.

Also, the pressure to demonstrate fertility and responsibility to raise children while still children themselves has drastic health repercussions on the physical and mental health of these young brides.

Complications of early, unplanned pregnancies
“Until a girl is 20 or 21, her body is not ready to bear a child,” says Dr Aparna Khulbey, General Physician. The physical and nutritional demands of pregnancy on still-maturing and inadequately nourished bodies can endanger adolescents’ health and increase the risk of their children falling sick or dying in infancy, said Guttmacher in her report on teen pregnancy.

UNICEF states that 66.6 per cent of the married girls aged between 15 and 19 are more likely to experience delivery complications compared to 57 per cent of women between 20 and 24 years. Neonatal and child mortality rates are much higher for younger (married) girls. Girls under 15 are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their 20s.

“Girls below 18 are at high risk of anaemia and pregnancy-related injuries like fistula and anal ruptures,” says Achyuta Rao, president of Andhra Pradesh Balala Hakkula Sangham.

According to the Mahboobnagar District Health Report for 2011-12, neonatal mortality rate constitutes 75 per cent of all the infant deaths in the state. Surprisingly, the study, states that no cases of maternal complications or high risk pregnancies were reported despite having one of the highest infant and maternal deaths in the state.

Teen pregnancies expose girls to high risk of HIV/AIDs and sexually transmitted diseases. With AP having the highest number of HIV positive cases, there is evidence that a significant number of these cases may be connected to child marriages. A study shows that only two per cent of men in Andhra Pradesh use condoms during sexual intercourse. Interestingly, men who had married child brides have had pre-marital sex, but their wives were virgins before marriage. “The risk of multiple sexual partners within and outside the institution of marriage exposes them to high risk of STDs,” explains Mamatha Raghuveer.

Genital ulcers, itching in the genitals, bad-smelling urethral and vaginal discharge are common symptoms,  says Dr. Khulbey.

Even their mental health goes for a toss. “Depression, isolation and stress is what they usually go through,” describes Jim De, a rights professional. Early pregnancy also limits them to the roles of wives and mothers, rendering them powerless.

“Unregulated doses of growth hormone are given to these girls if their physical attributes are not grown,” says Achyuta Rao, pointing out to the emerging trend in child marriages. Growth hormones are available at a few pharmacy stores without even providing a prescription—an example of how stringent measures under the Indian Pharmacy laws are not implemented. “They are mostly administered by quacks who pose as doctors,”  he explains.

Dismal health services
To make matters worse, adolescents aged 18 or younger are significantly less likely to receive any skilled prenatal or delivery care than older women.

Even the funds disbursed for healthcare services in the district are met with undue interference of politicians, making it extremely difficult to address health needs of a district languishing in despair.

Astonishingly, the Janani Surakasha Yojana (JSY) that promises cash incentives to women having institutional deliveries at public health institutions is not being used, given that the services at public hospitals are depressing.

“Even if all the public institutional deliveries and home deliveries get cash incentives under JSY, about 20 per cent of reported deliveries still miss the payment. This, amid low registration of births,” explains Dr Rachana, a health inspection officer.

According to Mamidi S. Chandra, director, Carped and a member of the Integrated Child Protection Unit, “District health workers, ANMs, ASHA workers are also a cause for the miserable state of medical services.” Of the 3,646 ASHA workers in the district, about 1,000 have stopped working and half of the mid wives who have performed deliveries do not know how to use the delivery kit. “ASHA workers and ANMs do not spread awareness about early pregnancy risks,” he adds.

Interestingly, the low awareness levels are directly proportional to low literacy levels (below 39 per cent according to a district report) and inversely proportional to drop-out rates of kids from schools.

Pawani Kumari, a teacher from Akwaipally village of Mahboobnagar says, “We try to educate as many girls about the risks involved in early marriages. They lack support at home. Most of them oppose, but their resistance doesn’t last long.”

Though there were no child brides in the school during my visit, most of the girls were soon to be brides. “Almost, all our parents want us to get married this year or may be, by next year,” rues Chaitanya, an VIII standard student.

On probing about Sirisha’s wedding, the headmaster of Mudhwyn High School initially admitted that she belonged to the school. Later, he denied that she was ever his student.

Inherent risks of HIV/ STDs
Gopal, a teacher from the school, beams as he states that no child marriage victims belong to his school. In contrast to his statement, Ramya*, Lavanya* and Mahima* were seen with mangalsutras and toe rings (a clear indication of their marriage).

On enquiry, the three 14-year old girls state that they were married off to men between 23 and 28 years of age. Lavanya further reveals that on an average, about 15-20 child marriages take place in this village in a year. Child rights activists, however, say that the number is much higher.

“During the summer vacation, I was married off to my maternal uncle’s son,” quips Ramya, adding that she likes the feeling of being married. On further probing about the nature of her relationship with her husband, Ramya reveals, “He kisses me and we do a lot of things (referring to sex)… I like all of it. I love him and do not oppose to anything he does …both of us enjoy it.”

Unfortunately, Ramya admits she has no idea about using protection while having sex or about the risks of unprotected sex.

The health catastrophes of girls in early matrimony are more than just bruises and breaking bones. Often, they cause  serious emotional harm. “Child marriage is a vicious cycle. Every problem begins with this,”  Mamatha Raghuveer says, adding, “Everything that has beginning has an end.”

Evaluating Women’s Social And Sexual Options - An Interview With Sarojini Sahoo

Sarojini Sahoo is a bilingual writer from the Indian subcontinent. Her writings are a rare insight into the mind of women who question the givens of patriarchal society. Sahoo offers an alternative discourse on issues related to women in India from women’s perspective. She has braved a lot of criticism for writing against the grain of patriarchy. However, her writings exemplify her philosophy which speaks of inclusiveness of peace and equality for both men and women. It has been a pleasure interacting with the author who is so approachable and forth coming with her knowledge and findings.

Excerpts of the Interview

HNN: You’ve mentioned ‘secular sexuality’ in your blog Sense and Sensuality; could you explain your take on that?
Answer: Perhaps a Baul saint Lalon Fakir (1774–1890) of Bangladesh declared first the notion in his song:

“Shob loke koy lalon ki jaat shongshaare
Aar lalon bole jaater ki roop,
Dekhlaam-na ei nojore.
Sunnath dile
hoy mussalmaan
Naari jaatir ki hoy bidhaan?
Aami bamun chini poita proman
Bamni chini kishe re?”

The English translation of that song is:

“Everyone asks, ‘What religion has Lalon in this world?’
And Lalon says, ‘What the shape of religion is, 
I have not seen with my eyes’.
The religion he speaks of encompasses and surpasses
not only religious identity, but also notions of gender.

‘If circumcision makes you a Muslim,
 what then is the dictum for women?
If a Brahmin can be identified by his sacred thread,
how shall I know a Brahmin woman?’

Any honest, thinking person cannot ignore the blatant misogyny and barbarity of all religions towards women. The powerful Creator Gods were the product of a patriarchal, tribal, violent, intolerant society. They reflect the ignorance and brutality of that society and at the dawn of a new millennium, fundamentalists insist that we should all abide by their religious law. So, I’m always in support of the idea that a woman has no religion.

What I can configure is (correct me if I am wrong), women should also be able to express their sexual needs as freely as men do. Do you think it is safe for women in India to be assertive about their sexuality when the social conditions are quite contrary? The legal system in India is also not able to protect the freedom of women here. 

It’s a vague and absurd idea that woman’s right over her own body (rather we shouldn’t name it as sexual liberation) is responsible to enhance sex crime. Look at Denmark. There were six registered sex offenders living in Denmark in early 2007, according to State List. All names presented here were gathered at a past date. No representation is made that the persons listed there are currently on the state's sex offender’s registry. The ratio of number of residents in Denmark to the number of sex offenders is 357:1. But the country is very much liberal, having a less control over sexual restrictions.

In 2006, a greater number of sex crimes are registered in spring and summer, according to figures provided by the Municipal Department of Internal Affairs in Moscow. In February of that year, nine rapes were committed in the capital, whereas in March this figure reached 15, and in May, it rose to 22, and in June, it rose even higher to 23. Can we then blame seasonal effect for increasing in sex crime?

The fact is that only 20 percent of rapists are so-called sex maniacs. Another 30 percent are drunken teenagers or released criminals. In half of these cases, the rapist is a person with whom the victim is already familiar, even if they have only just met at the house of a mutual acquaintance or at a bus stop. In the case of teenage girls, who are not always able to say “no” to an adult, the statistics are even higher: four out of five victims of sexual crimes suffered at the hands of a neighbor, class-mate, or family friend. So how can you say woman’s right over her body is responsible for the increase in rape cases? Why not the son, the hormones, and alcohol?

I think this type of argument has a motivated intention to maintain masculine dominance over feminine rights.“Woman’s right over her body” in the American context was about the right to have abortion. What is your implication of using this slogan in the Indian context?
Let us discuss how the ‘body’ of a female acquired its place in the total Western discourse. In the nineteenth century, when the Contagious Diseases Act was enforced in Britain and women were forcibly examined for venereal disease, the ‘body’ also came into prominence. Josephine Butler was the prominent figure to raise her voice through the campaign. In feminist history, we find the Seneca Falls Convention (July 19-20, 1848) does not mention the body, it was first mentioned as a marker of race and class differences within the feminist movement by Sojourner Truth in her famous speech, “Ain't I a Woman?” at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851.Truth told in her speech, “I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have ploughed, and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man — when I could get it — and bear de lash a well! And ain't I a woman?”

However, credit goes to Simone De Beauvoir, who embodied the ‘female body’ with a philosophical strategy. In the first chapter of The Second Sex, Beauvoir reviews the data of biology and later she provides an account of the phenomenology of the body as lived throughout the different stages of a woman's life. Here she is explicitly offering her narrative as an account of lived experience, the body in situations and not as part of the data of biology. She discusses social issues primarily affecting women in our culture, such as birth control, abortion, the family, sexual discrimination and harassment, and rape. Though Beauvoir begins her book with women’s bodies, she later she states that ‘connoisseurs’ do not declare every human with a uterus as a woman. “It would appear then," she writes, “that every female human being is not necessarily a woman; to be so considered she must share in that mysterious and threatened reality known as femininity.” Beauvoir thus rejects the female body and from that time onward, feminist philosophy has been denying the need of a female body or female sexuality, and their only aim was in liberating women from reproductive tasks. Women were barred from beauty consciousness and from using cosmetics or fashionable dress and ‘femininity’ of a female was considered as the ‘negative’ aspects of her nature.

Luce Irigaray, a Belgian feminist, philosopher, linguist, psychoanalyst, sociologist and cultural theorist identified this ‘masculinism’ of feminists in her well-known book Speculum of the Other Woman (1974) (translated by G. C. Gill, and published by Cornell University Press, Ithaca). She pointed out that in the thoughts of these feminists, man was presented as the universal norm, and sexual difference was not recognized or recognised in such a way that woman was conceptualized as the ‘maternal-feminine,’ which had been left behind in the move to abstract thought.

I don’t know the actual facts and happenings with an infant girl-child, but in Asian and African countries, it's a regular practice to breastfeed girls for a shorter time than boys so that women can try to get pregnant again with a boy as soon as possible. In the case of adolescent girls, they are provided with less food than their brothers by their own mothers. As a result, girls miss out on life-giving nutrition during a crucial time in their development, which stunts their growth and weakens their resistance to disease. Sunita Kishor published a survey report in American Sociological Review (April 1993). In her article “May God Give Sons to All: Gender and Child Mortality in India,” she writes “despite the increased ability to command essential food and medical resources associated with development, female children [in India] do not improve their survival chances relative to male children with gains in development. Relatively high levels of agricultural development decrease the life chances of females while leaving males’ life chances unaffected; urbanization increases the life chances of males more than females. Clearly, gender-based discrimination in the allocation of resources persists and even increases, even when availability of resources is not a constraint.” Is this not gender discrimination as related to the body of a female?

How does your feminism differ from feminism in the West? Since you also talk about writing the body isn’t it the same as ecriture feminism of the French feminists?
For me, feminism is not a gender problem or any confrontational attack on male hegemony so it is quite different from that of Virginia Woolf or Judith Butler. I accept feminism as a total entity of female-hood, which is completely separate from the man’s world.

To me, femininity (rather than feminism) has a wonderful power. In our de-gendered times, a really feminine woman is a joy to behold and you can love and unleash your own unique yet universal femininity. We are here for gender sensitivity to proclaim the differences between men and woman with a kind of pretence that we are all the same. Too many women have been de-feminized by society. To be feminine is to know how to pay attention to detail and people; to have people skills; and to know how to connect to and work well with others. There will be particular times and situations within which you'll want to be more in touch and in tune with your femininity than others. Being able to choose is a great privilege and skill.

I think ‘femininity’ is the proper word to replace ‘feminism,’ because the latter has lost its significance and identity due to its extensive involvement with radical politics. Femininity comes from the original Latin word ‘femina’ which means ‘female’ or ‘women’ and certainly the word creates debatable identical characteristics. It separates the female mass from a masculine world with reference to gentleness, empathy, sensitivity, nurturance, deference, self-abasement, and succorance. And patriarchy also sets the group alien from them in their traditional milieu.

There are many more differences in theories among scientists, anthropologists, and psychologist regarding the nature and behavior of the female mass. Biologists believe the role of our hormones, particularly sex hormones, and the structure of our chromosomes are responsible for such a dichotomy in gender, though some queer theorists and other postmodernists, however, have rejected the sex (biology) / gender (culture) dichotomy as a “dangerous simplification.” Psychology, often influenced by patriarchy, categorizes women as different from the masculine world in certain behavioral, emotional and logical areas. Social anthropologists deny the concept of biology or psychology which keeps women aside from the masculine world. Simone De Beauvoir’s saying “one is not born a woman, but becomes one” impressed social anthropologists so much that they create a different theory of feminine socialization.

In my essays, I have constantly tried to analyze the ‘truth,’ as related by biologists and anthropologists. What I think true to my sense and sensibility, I have expressed without any hesitation.

Don’t you think ecriture feminism limits the writing style of women writers? Doesn’t’ it become prescriptive? 
I don’t consider myself as a conformist because I consider myself more a writer and as a writer, I think I am always a genderless entity. In my opinion, a writer should not have any gender. But still, patriarchal society has prevailed; is there any possibility to have a genderless society?

What would you like to say about doubly marginalized women like the tribal women, widows in ashrams, or women from lower castes and poor women who have to deal with the daily grind of survival and humiliation? They are deprived of the basic human rights. Do they have time to think about sexual liberation when other issues of survival are more important to them?
A Dalit or tribal woman not only struggles for her lower economic status, but she has to live with a high risk of gender-based violence. At the household level, incest, rape and domestic violence continue to hinder women’s development across India. 

Forty percent of all sexual abuse cases in India are incest, and 94% of the incest cases had a known member of the household as the perpetrator. Dowry related deaths, domestic violence, gang rape of lower caste women by upper caste men, and physical violence by the police towards tribal women all contribute to women’s insecurity in India. The class and caste structure inadvertently put poor women from lower class and tribal communities at the most risk of violence. Class and caste divisions also create grave challenges to poor, lower caste, and tribal women in accessing justice and retribution as victims and survivors of violence. So, sexual factors have a significant role in women’s life as their economic condition and so I argue for two types of liberation for women. One is economical and other is sexual.

How does a woman’s sexuality play a major role in the understanding of feminism in India?
In marital life in India and many other countries around the world, a woman has no sexual rights. She cannot express her desires and even she is not supposed to enjoy sex as it is told in the Hindu code that a wife is needed only for giving birth to a ‘male child.’ Expressing her own desire for sex or talking freely about orgasm to even one’s own husband may also be termed as a chasteless and debasing activity for a woman.

Though the Women and Child Development Ministry (WCD) and the National Commission for Women (NCW) have advised the government to amend the 1973 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the 1872 Indian Evidence Act to recognize new categories of sexual assault by redefining rape to include sexual assault (including domestic sexual assault) of any form in its definition, still, most married woman are facing such marital rapes in their daily lives.

But talk about these ‘dicey’ topics by a woman is considered vulgar. Also, nobody thinks it proper to ask a woman before subjecting her to the killing of her fetus yet now, in some parts of India, ‘honor killings’ are granted if a woman steps out of bounds — by choosing her own husband, by flirting in public, or by seeking divorce from an abusive partner — she has brought dishonor to her family. Yet all these matters are related to a woman’s body and still, that woman has no right to make any of her own decisions.

In total, we can see the term ‘sex’ and ‘female sexuality’ has been totally misinterpreted in the discourse of Western feminism. Sexuality is not only a bodily matter and it does not limit itself to only sexual behavior and sexual activities, though they are a major factor. And most of the real meaning of female sexuality relatively termed with her body as well mind.

Does your writing represent only particular middle class women and their issues?
No, never. Many of my stories are related to the protagonists who come from urban or tribal background. Yash Publication of Delhi is going to publish a collection of my Hindi translated stories on these downtrodden ‘Dalit’ characters. One of my novels Pakshivas (this novel has been translated into Hindi and Bengali) is the saga of an untouchable, downtrodden cattle bone collector, Satnemi family from Kalahandi, the most backward region of western Orissa.

Do you think writings in ‘bhasha’ literatures in India are dependent on their translated versions to find a larger audience?
Yes, as India is a country of vast linguistic diversity, translation of Indian Literature from one language to another has a significant role to capture the wide audience from all over the country. But if you think English is the only language which could pay this role model, then you are probably wrong. Once the Indian author Shashi Deshpande expressed her ideas that the English language is in some ways harmful to Indian culture not because it is the language of the ex-colonizers, but because it has become the language of the privileged, elite classes in India. She admits that when she writes in English she is aware that her work will reach out to only a few English-speaking readers, most of whom will be thinking the way she does. 

The problem is that if an author writes in English with the purpose of changing social traditions, the language excludes the poor and down-trodden whose involvement is most needed, and English has no place in the daily lives of those people.

But it is worth noting that English is the only source where a link can be made with global literary fields; although in India, the readability of literature in English shows a minuscule acceptance despite the rapid growth of literacy in English and in incomes of urban Indians. Presently and after globalization, it has remarkably placed its significance and never anyone today could define its tenure as colonial or outsider.

Do you think that a lot is lost in the process of translation of your work?
Yes, many times I feel the translator can’t transform the feelings or emotions or facts I want to express. Maybe a translator will be successful in transferring the message, but how about the beauty of the language or the aesthetic. One language might be beautiful according to the native speaker, but if it is transferred into another language the beauty of language will not be the same. On the other hand, if the translator just focuses the beauty of the language, he ignores the message or the idea.

Do you think that feminism in the west has influenced feminist rising in India and other third world nations like Africa?
Certainly westerns are premier in Feminism, but unlike Western countries, feminism in India had been motivated and ignited mostly by males and never females. It is a very interesting fact that in the colonial period, we find none of the female authors came forward with any question over the patriarchal milieu except some Anglo-Indian writers like Bithia Mary Crocker (1849 -1920), Maud Diver (1867-1945), Sara Duncan (1861-1921), F. E. Penny, Alice Perrin (1867-1934), and Flora Annie Steel (1847-1929). They all are now forgotten, but once they played a major role in molding conflicts and collusions between 

British feminist discourses at the turn of the nineteenth century and contemporary conservative discourses bolstering colonial patriarchy. Though they were related to India somehow by their birth; culturally, they were not associated with India. The trend of feminism began in the late nineteenth century with the rise of the reformist movement in India by male reformists like Ram Mohan Ray, Chandra Vidyasagar, and others. I can’t say more about development of Feminism in Africa as this field is yet to be studied by me.

Who are the feminist writers from the west who have influenced your writings? You have been compared with Judith Butler and Simon de Beauvoir from the west, but you contend that your feminist position is different from their feminism. Could you elaborate how?
No doubt Simon de Beauvoir has inspired much to think more about feminism but not in my all writings. So far as the question related with literature or fiction, there are always male writers than female counterparts who impressed me.

Though Beauvoir has inspired me first to think over feminism, but I possess very different views from western feminist. I have opposed Simone De Beauvoir’s ‘other’ theory and opposite to her I believe that there are inherent physical, behavioral, emotional, and psychological differences between men and women and we affirm and celebrate these differences as wonderful and complementary. These differences do not evidence the superiority of one sex over the other but rather, serve to show that each sex is complemented and made stronger by the presence of the other. As a different unit, similar to man, the female mass has their right for equity as well. You can read more about my differences with Beauvoir on ‘other theory’ from an article titled ‘Other” at Wikipedia.

Now about Judith Butler. The concept of ‘right soul in a wrong body’ developed from Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando - A Biography to which Judith Butler described those signs or analytical models which dramatize incoherencies in the allegedly stable relations between chromosomal sex, gender and sexual desire and named it as ‘queer theory’. In my book Sensible Sensuality, I discussed these gestures and showed how these are throwing out powerful rhetoric of ‘thwarting the binary gender system’ means nothing if it comes from somebody who hates the world, loses his or her confidence to face life, and doesn't like himself or herself as a person. I can understand the positions of intersexuals or transsexuals who are born with differed biological bodies. There should be rational steps to make all feel comfortable and to mix up everyone into the mainstream. What I am against is the pop-culture clichés to express these feelings like “man trapped in a woman's body” or “woman trapped in a man's body.”

Feminism has branched out into many trajectories; can we talk of cross cultural feminism in the present scenario? Are there any cross connections? In the age of accelerated globalization, migration and displacement cross cultural feminist exchanges and dialogues become a basis for negotiating culturally differentiated feminist positions. Do you think third world feminist strategies can help feminist in the west and vice versa?
Recently in several European countries, a tendency to ban this full-body covering burqa or the face-covering ‘hijab’ has been seen and as governments there are trying to outlaw this dress code, which is pushing many countries toward a debate. In my blogging ‘Banning the Burqa: What’s Really Being Hid?’ I commented: “I think it is totally undemocratic to dictate any code of living to anyone. Democracy means freedom of choice! If anyone has freedom to wear jeans, they should also have the freedom to wear ‘burqa.’ Leave women to wear what they want.” What I find more a gender bias in this law is that this ban, in fact, would reduce the equality between men and women — whereas men are allowed to wear whatever they want, women again have their rights restrained. It is foolishness to think that by making any law or dress code, the institution making its rules can make people obey and follow as dictated. Rather, it usually serves to ignite emotions and increase the impulsive alienated attitude among some communities. But on the other hand I believe, if we have to support the Burqa wearing females, we should have to support Aliaa Magda Elmahdy’s attempt to publish her nude photos.

But it is also true that in the name of cross cultural feminism feminine mass has to bear a risk of becoming a tool in the hand of patriarchy control. For example: supporting Female Genital Mutilation in the name of cross cultural feminism seems to be harder for me. Holding a religious conviction and faith is a matter that must be left absolutely to each person’s inner choice of free will. It is a very sad commentary on mankind that they have over time turned all the teachings brought to them about Truth and Life into religions; and have maintained these religions with iron-clad rigid dogmas and doctrines. This way, the society, or particularly to say patriarchal society has brought serious dilution, and in some cases distortions, into the true teachings of the Prophets and Truth Bringers. Patriarchy always used religion as a tool for suppression to women and hence I think it is improper and harmful to add religious beliefs rather individual conviction to women’s moral values in the name of cross cultural feminism.

Some critics have criticized the feminist writings of the third world as tokenism and sometimes even farcical, what do you have to say to such kind of criticism?
I don’t think feminist writings in India are farcical. Before criticizing feminist writings, we have to keep in mind that a literary writing should not be propagandist one. The tabloid issued for any political movement can’t be named as literature. So, while judging writings of Ismat Chugtai, Amrita Pritam or Kamala Das, we have not to fix a feminist norm rather we have to keep in mind that how much sincere they are to their feelings and experiences with their womanhoods.

If a feminist writer chooses to write about the patriarchal dominance in the Hindu or even in Muslim traditions she is indicted for having joined hands with the west by the fundamentalists. Have you also faced similar kind of censure when you wrote against the grain of the Hindu tradition?
When my novel The Dark Abode first published in Odia under the title of Gambhiri Ghara in 2005, the Hindu fundamentalists raised their brows and I have to bear many insulting words in the name of criticism. One of our senior writers rebuked me over phone for playing with religious sentiments. But Gambhiri Ghara gained instant readers’ appreciation and good name in Odia literature and the book proved itself as a best seller of the time. Later it was translated and got published in English, Bengali, Hindi and Malayalam. In Bangladesh, the novel became popular and could attract critics’ attention.

You have used the Uma Shakti Myth in your novel The Dark Abode. Some scholars might blame you for promoting the Hindu religion and marginalizing women who don't follow Hinduism.
Religion and mythology are two different fixations. Religion is the broader term: besides mythological aspects, it includes aspects of ritual, morality, theology, and mystical experience. A given mythology is almost always associated with certain symbolic representation of ideas or philosophy of a ‘group’. It is very interesting to note that though Mesopotamian, Greek and Hindu civilizations, religions and cultures existed in different parts of the world and were separated by great distances and time, but there are some amazing similarities between their fables and myths. The concept of goddess always lies with sexuality and we find great similarities in all the myths of goddesses in worldwide. In Sumer, the goddess was known as Inanna, and in Babylon and Assyria, was known as Ishtar. She was Aphrodite for the Greeks. The Egyptians called her Hathor, Quaddesha and Aset. To the Phoenicians, she was Astarte. To the Hebrews, she was Ashtoreth and Ashera. And to the Philistines, she was Atergatis. So, the concept of Uma is universal idea/ philosophy of sexuality in all other cultures.

The foreword of the novel opens with metta, mudita, upekks” Pali words that mean love, joy, to see within; Are these words symbolic of the theme underlying your narrative?
In Chapter 2 of TDA, Kuki told Safiq, “What is the point of living like a caterpillar, or leading a life of unbridled enjoyment of female flesh without any emotions or attachments? Do you think I have been attracted towards you in anticipation of physical pleasure? I wish I was aware of all this from the beginning.”

Here ‘Caterpillar ‘is a symbol of ‘sex hunger’ and Kuki wants to raise her from mire of sex to celestial expansion. You could mark that the total novel is the description of slow process how a perverted person who enjoyed 52 fair sexes could raise himself to a perfect self in love.

Why have you brought the “historical background” to the foreground towards the end of the novel , since the novel deals with “personal story” of Kuki and Safiq, History remains in the background throughout, then why a sudden reversal towards the end?
The ‘historical background’ has not been brought at the end only. You could mark the starting of novel is from a ‘historical back ground’ where the partition, the Kashmir problem and Indo-Pak relations ship or Hindu-Muslim hatred scenarios in Kuki’s nostalgia occupy a major portion.

The novel also delves into the relationship between the ‘state’ and the ‘individual’ and comes to the conclusion that ‘the state’ represents the moods and wishes of a ruler and hence, ‘the state’ actually becomes a form of ‘an individual’. So, the ‘personal story’ of Kuki and Safiq actually represents the story of a subcontinent.

Reviewing TDA, Bangladeshi eminent writer Selina Hossain writes,” The course of life of two different citizens of two States does not give any other solution than waiting. How the State obstructs and suppresses the individual freedom has been shown in the version of Safiq, the painter. When he writes letter to Kuki in pseudonym, she understands that ‘It is a ploy to hide his identity from the Military Junta.’

Kuki wrote to Safiq, ‘Don’t think that there is any less exercise to cook up history in our India. Here the history changes its narrative with the change of rulers. It becomes difficult to ascertain who is the hero, who the villain. The historical facts read by the father are changed when it is the turn of the son to read it. Can you tell when the history of man will be available to man written impartiality?’ The writer does not rest without telling the tale of the individuals, the State, political tit bits, the behaviour of the military and misrule of the State in her novel. The inner conflict gives the heroine much trouble. Different aspects of the crisis of a woman’s life have been described in this novel. The woman fights with herself.”

Macro level of politics has been mentioned only fleetingly in the last chapters, you have tried to include all forces that regulate the destiny of a personal relation be it tradition, macro level politics, economic forces, political and geographical wars, religious and ethnical non tolerance and even terrorism. Was your intention to highlight the forces against which all human beings are pitted?
Your observations are very correct. That is why Kuki could realize Virginia Woolf’s sayings: “As a woman, I have no country. As a woman, my country is the whole world.”

The character of Safique has been left in shrouds of mystery in the end. Is it deliberate? How do you account for it?
I am sometimes doubtful if all the imaginary situations I have used in my fictions are mine. Sometimes the imaginary is "running by itself" and the content is not typically what I would imagine out of my own desires. I suspect something mystic with writings can be real. To suppress such communication is something I am unsure of, because the characters of my fictions want to live their lives by their own will, because they want to heal their wounds, and how can I deny such a positive force? 

Perhaps it is the ‘Safique’s will’ which would make him imperceptible at the end.

What is the relevance of the collage presentation of the rather erotic sketches by Ed Baker in the novel? Do they convey something you could not write as explicitly as a woman writer? How do you connect the sketches with the narrative?
I think mine is the expression of female sexuality in fiction or text form and Baker tries to represent the same idea through art form. In my original Odia (Oriya) novel there are also similar sketches drawn by Dr. Dinanath Pathi, the Secretary General of LalitKala Akademi.

HNN: Thank you for sharing your insights about feminism in the Indian context. Wish you good luck for your future projects.

Dying of Indifference

By M H Ahssan

One woman dies every eight minutes due to complications arising due to pregnancy such as sepsis, haemorrhage or obstructed labour. These deaths could be avoided if there is timely medical intervention.

"She gave birth, died. Delhi walked by". This was the headline of a six-column news item on the top of an inside page in Hindustan Times (29 August 2010). Illustrated with four telling photographs, the story was about a pregnant and destitute woman, who lay on the footpath of Delhi's busy and well-frequented Shankar Market, which is adjacent to the iconic Connaught Place. Thousands of people must have passed her, but no one spared a glance at what appeared a bundle of rags covered in a red cloth.

On 26 July, this woman gave birth, unaided by anyone. The cries of the newborn infant caught the attention of some of the shopkeepers and one of them, the owner of a garment shop, picked up the baby. The mother apparently refused help and died on that same spot where she had given birth, four days later. The police came and removed her body and took the child, who had been in the care of the Good Samaritan until then, to a foster home.

This is an item that should have been on the front page of all our newspapers because it illustrates two things. One, the increasing indifference of people who live in our metro cities, who are so absorbed with their own lives that they don't even look around to see how other people survive or die. We have lost our ability to see, to feel. No one wants to get involved. There is a fear that you might be asked to commit more of your time, your resources, your emotions than you are willing to do. So our eyes glaze over, we look the other way and we walk away.

And two, it brings home the reality of maternal mortality in this country where even as we boast of becoming an economic super power and the media celebrates the few Indians who are joining the list of the richest in the world, millions of our women are dying in the process of giving birth to a child.

Of course the story of this woman, whose name we do not know, is one extreme. But it should remind us that this is the reality that we have to address in this country.

Countless more
One can just imagine with rains and the floods that have taken place in the last months how many more such nameless women there must be on the streets of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, a part of the thousands who have no shelter, who have to sleep out in the open. All our cities, particularly Delhi but other cities too, are in the midst of a huge construction boom. This is bringing in thousands upon thousands of people from the surrounding areas. Those who have a skill and find regular work in these construction sites are possibly provided temporary shelter by the contractors. But many more do causal work, as and when it is available. The rest of the time they do what they can to earn a few rupees everyday, sometimes send their children out to beg and find whatever place they can to sleep.

In Mumbai, for instance, the fancy new skywalks that have been built connecting railway stations to business hubs have become temporary homes for these homeless people. It is an eerie spectacle to see these bodies laid out in a row, all ages, men, women and children, some sleeping under mosquito nets strung to the side of the skywalk, somehow catching a few hours rest under the relentless yellow light that shines all night. By morning the skywalk reverts to being what it is meant to be, a pedestrian walkway. No one can complain or say anything because there is no solution. But what happens to the children, especially the small babies, what happens to the women, some of them fairly young who become pregnant and have no recourse to any healthcare?

For the other side of this tragic story from a busy street in our national capital is that one woman dies every eight minutes due to complications arising due to pregnancy such as sepsis, haemorrhage or obstructed labour. These deaths could be avoided if there is timely medical intervention. But such help is hard to come by if you live in a remote area or if you are poor woman in city or village. Even if you get some help, it is often too late to make a difference between life and death.

India's current Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) is 254 in 100,000 live births. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), half of all maternal deaths in South Asia occur in five Indian states - Rajasthan, MP, UP, Bihar and Orissa. We have committed ourselves as part of the UN's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to bring the MMR down to 109 by 2015, in just five years. Is that possible?

The central government has launched the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) to specifically address the problem. It provides cash incentives to women who choose institutional delivery in the belief that this will reduce maternal mortality. If we believe official data, then it would appear that many poor women are benefitting from the scheme. For instance, according to one report, two months before the destitute died in Delhi's Shankar Market, another poor woman living in an open park near the Nizamuddin Dargah was lucky enough to be found by an NGO that helped her get the benefits under this scheme. As a result, the baby girl she delivered in the park has a chance to live, she has a birth certificate unlike others like her, and the mother too is receiving healthcare.

Different reality
Sadly, just as the exception in the case of the woman who died on the street does not make the rule, neither does the woman who survived in the park. Cash incentives in this country have usually led to corruption and fudging of data. This is already evident from reports from Bihar and Jharkhand. Also, the media often remains content with reporting official figures without investing in investigating what is actually happening on the ground. The few investigative stories that do appear on healthcare tell a very different story. They inform us of the struggle poor women face to reach a hospital, how they are either turned away or have to wait as there are no trained personnel around. As a result, regardless of new schemes or incentives, they are either too weak to survive childbirth or die because the promised help never turns up.

Maternal mortality means women are dying of causes not related to diseases or epidemics. Their ability to survive something like childbirth is inextricably linked to poverty, malnutrition and the absence of basic healthcare. We can set ourselves all kinds of targets but a realistic plan to improve the survival chances of millions of Indian women is to ensure that our systems of healthcare actually cater to those at the bottom of the economic pyramid, women like that poor, nameless destitute in Delhi.

World Population Day 2009 - Fight Poverty, Educate Girls

By M H Ahssan

On 11 July 2009, people around the world will be observing the 20th World Population Day in different ways. This year's theme is chance to build awareness of the importance of educating girls to a wide range of development issues, including poverty, human rights and gender equality.

There are many ways to promote this theme:

- Consider inviting local celebrities to help spread the message.
- Organize events to generate widespread attention about the importance of girls' education.
- Spark discussion with seminars, conferences and debates. Host essay and poster contests.
- Work with community groups to create plays and soap operas.

Encourage women and girls to speak or write about the impact of education in their own life. The messages can come to life when different people from different circumstances share their own experiences and knowledge.

Investing in Women is a Smart Choice
No one knows yet what the full scale of this global economic crisis will look like. We do know that women and children in developing countries will bear the brunt of the impact. What started as a financial crisis in rich countries is now deepening into a global economic crisis that is hitting developing countries hard. It is already affecting progress toward reducing poverty.

Policy responses that build on women's roles as economic agents can do a lot to mitigate the effects of the crisis on development, especially because women, more than men, invest their earnings in the health and education of their children. Investments in public health, education, child care and other social services help mitigate the impact of the crisis on the entire family and raise productivity for a healthier economy.

Protect the gains achieved
Investments in education and health for women and girls have been linked to increases in productivity, agricultural yields, and national income — all of which contribute to the achievement of the MDGs. Investments by governments worldwide have raised school enrolment rates, narrowed the gender gap in education, brought life-saving drugs to people living with AIDS, expanded HIV prevention, delivered bed nets to prevent malaria, and improved child health through immunization.

Today, as we commemorate World Population Day, the global financial and economic crisis threatens to reverse hard-won gains in education and health in developing countries. Among those hardest hit are women and girls. This is why the theme of this year’s World Population Day focuses on investing in women. Even before the crisis, women and girls represented the majority of the world’s poor. Now they are falling deeper into poverty and face increased health risks, especially if they are pregnant.

Today, complications of pregnancy and childbirth are leading killers of women in the developing world. And maternal mortality represents the largest health inequity in the world. This health gap will only deepen unless we increase social investments, maintain health gains and expand efforts to save more women’s lives.

In countries and communities where women have access to reproductive health services—such as family planning, skilled attendance at birth and emergency obstetric and neonatal care—survival rates are high and maternal and newborn deaths are rare.

Access to reproductive health, in particular family planning and maternal health services, helps women and girls avoid unwanted or early pregnancy, unsafe abortions, as well as pregnancy‐related disabilities. This means that women stay healthier, are more productive, and have more opportunities for education, training and employment, which, in turn, benefits entire families, communities and nations.

And investments in reproductive health are cost-effective. An investment in contraceptive services can be recouped four times over—and sometimes dramatically more over the long-term—by reducing the need for public spending on health, education and other social services.
It is estimated that family planning alone could reduce the number of maternal deaths by as much as 40 per cent.

Our world today is too complex and interconnected to see problems in isolation of each other. When a mother dies, when an orphan child does not get the food or education he needs, when a young girl grows into a life without opportunities, the consequences extend beyond the existence of these individuals. They diminish the society as a whole and lessen chances for peace, prosperity and stability.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, remains committed to supporting countries to advance women’s empowerment, gender equality and sexual and reproductive health.

Today, on World Population Day, I call on all leaders to make the health and rights of women a political and development priority. Investing in women and girls will set the stage not only for economic recovery, but also for long-term economic growth that reduces inequity and poverty. There is no smarter investment in troubled times.

Lives sacrificed: Women and health in South Asia

By Deepti Priya Mehrotra

A new World Bank report looks at the state of reproductive health of poor women in five countries -- Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka -- and makes a case for decentralised planning, delivery and expansion of health services, with a clear focus on enhancing inclusion

‘Sparing Lives: Better Reproductive Health for Poor Women in South Asia’, by Meera Chatterjee, Ruth Levine, Nirmala Murthy and Shreelata Rao-Seshadri, the World Bank, MacMillan, 2008

This World Bank report, released on March 5, 2009, investigates the state of reproductive health of poor women in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It also makes a case for increasingly decentralised planning, delivery and expansion of health services, with a clear focus on enhancing inclusion.

The report highlights a number of significant concerns. Sri Lanka, despite ongoing conflict, fares remarkably better than the other four countries in terms of maternal mortality, pregnancy and delivery care, infant weight and death rates, contraceptive acceptance and fertility rates. This is attributable to a high commitment to health on the part of successive governments. With decentralised planning the cornerstone of health delivery, services are provided at all levels, as an integrated package. The report notes that Sri Lanka’s relative success is “not because it spends more per capita, but because it uses resources more efficiently and equitably… Low unit costs in Sri Lanka contribute to high reproductive health access…”

Gopalakrishnan, a representative from the prime minister’s office, India, noted that the findings of the report are “disconcerting”; he reiterated the “urgency of concerns” to be addressed. Enormous disparities exist in India throughout the realm of maternal health and services delivery. For instance, while some antenatal care and tetanus toxoid reached 77-78% of women in 2005-06, only half of the poorest women received care as compared to the richest. Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe women have far lower maternal health service coverage levels than other women. While overall fertility reduction and contraceptive use have improved, the improvement is not as much as is desired. Between 1998-99 and 2005-06, fertility declined from 2.8 to 2.7 births per woman, the greatest change occurring among 15-19-year-olds. Kerala, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab have achieved replacement-level fertility, while Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa will contribute over 50% of the country’s increase in population over the coming decade. As for contraceptive use, only 48.5% of couples used modern methods of contraception (in 2005-06), one-fifth of these being temporary methods. Terminal methods, ie sterilisation, continue to be dominant. The average age for female sterilisation is amongst the lowest in the world (below 25 years). The poorest women in India are four times more likely than the richest women to have an ‘unmet need’ for contraception, underlining the urgency of ensuring wider access to temporary contraceptive methods. The gap between the poor and the rich in contraceptive use is much less in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, as compared to India, Nepal and Pakistan.

The average risk of maternal death in these five South Asian countries (1 in 43) is almost a hundred times greater than that of a woman in the industrialised countries (1 in 4,000). Maternal mortality rates in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan are still two to four times higher than the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set for 2015. While the lifetime risk of dying during pregnancy for a woman in Sri Lanka is 1 in 430, in Bangladesh it is 1 in 59, in India 1 in 48, in Pakistan 1 in 31, and in Nepal 1 in 24. India needs to reduce its maternal mortality rate by two-thirds to meet the MDG -- from the current estimate of 301 to 100 (by the year 2015).

Malnutrition contributes to maternal mortality, and infant and child deaths. Over two-fifths of all children under five in the region are malnourished, the figure even in Sri Lanka being as high as 22%. While 34.3% of women are acutely undernourished in Bangladesh, in India nearly half (47%) of mothers aged 15-19 years are undernourished. Compared to the richest quintile of urban women in India, the poorest urban quintile is 4.8 times more likely to be undernourished, and the poorest rural quintile, 5.6 times more likely. Over 45% of rural children under five years of age are undernourished, and almost one-third of urban children: a total of about 50 million undernourished young children in India.

The five countries together have a huge population of poor people: approximately 500 million. About four-fifths of the population of Bangladesh, India and Nepal live on less than 2 dollars a day, and two-fifths in Sri Lanka. Governments are certainly not directing sufficient resources into reproductive health services for the poor. Integrated health services and nutrition are critically needed and ought to be very high on the priority agendas of all the nations. Noting that poverty and poor reproductive health form a vicious cycle, the report emphasises the need for a renewed focus on adolescent health and nutrition, and accessible contraception, pregnancy and childbirth services. It also acknowledges that gender discrimination exists in society as well as in the health services sector, and that needs to be tackled.

While the report provides useful information on poor women’s reproductive health, it does not attempt correlations with macro factors like food security, unemployment, access to potable water, political participation and so on. Such correlations are needed, to arrive at a more comprehensive analysis of causes and policy implications. Several elements required to help South Asian poor women to climb out of the abyss may still be missing from the jigsaw.

During the video conference at the simultaneous release of the report in the five countries, Dr Mohammad Abdul Qayyum, director general of family planning, Bangladesh, gave voice to a woman-friendly policy understanding: “We want to provide and strengthen safe birth practices wherever the woman wants to be.” He noted that maximum births could take place at home, and spelt out Bangladesh’s commitment to community clinics, where referrals for high-risk and emergency services could be made available. Indu Capoor, a women’s health professional and director, CHETNA (Centre for Holistic Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness, Ahmedabad) pointed out that rejection of home births and traditional birth attendants, to be replaced wholesale by institutional births and ‘trained’ attendants, is a deeply flawed and highly questionable policy for South Asian countries.

Pakistan, India and Nepal would do well to heed the practical wisdom inherent in Bangladesh’s policy choice. This debate highlights the need for policymakers to listen far more to grassroots health activists who may have different points of view on how to handle issues. As Gouri Choudhury, director, Action India, remarked: “We have been saying much of this for the past 20 years. What is new?… The health volunteers appointed by the government are called ASHA now, but they are still underpaid and overburdened… This is not decentralised service delivery!”