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By Rashme Arora Decades of female foeticide and infanticide have finally caught up with the people of Haryana. With the sex ratio in Rohtak district down to 796 females per 1000 males and the rest of the state faring not much better, young men are desperate to get married but cannot find themselves brides
 Two decades ago Dr RS Dahiya, assistant professor of surgery, PGIMS, conducted a survey covering 1,022 women and highlighting how families in Haryana were resorting to both direct and indirect methods of female infanticide. Dahiya's report on 'Female Foeticide in Rural Haryana' sent shockwaves through this patriarchal state.
The direct methods resorted to included sex determination tests such as ultrasound and poisoning and starving the newborn baby girl. Indirect methods included neglecting the girl-child's health and allowing her to slowly starve. Two decades of female foeticide and infanticide have finally caught up with the Haryanvis. Thousands of young boys are desperate to get married, but there are no brides available. Ram Kumar Hooda, member of the panchayat in Bhali village in Rohtak district, turns philosophical when describing this paucity of women. "The scarcity of marriageable girls in our state is akin to the shortage of grain in a famine," he says. Gyano Devi, the sarpach of Mayna village in Panipat district, was accosted by six lanky Jat boys who warned her, "Tai, we will accept your sarpanchi only if you find brides for us." The situation is so grim that families are resorting to buying girls from Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal and passing them off as members of their own `biradiri' (community). Doughty old Bhagwani from Bhali village admits both her grandsons have settled for `bahus' from Gohra village in the Sagar district of Madhya Pradesh. "What could we do? We consider a boy to have reached marriageable age after he turns 18. My grandsons were 27 and 28 years old. A close relative of ours whose son was 32 found a girl from Sagar district. We decided to follow suit," she says. Bhagwani denies having paid a bride price but her neighbours disagree "Most of these girls being brought in from outside are being paid for and end up being treated as bonded labour," one of Bhagwani's neighbours insists. Dr Richa Tanwar, Director of Women's Studies at Kurukshetra University says, "The shortage of women both in our cities and villages is forcing men to find women from elsewhere. The situation will worsen in the coming years because the sex ratio amongst the literate population has dipped to 618 girls to 1,000 boys." The more tricky question is to convince the villagers that these `outsiders' belong to the same caste as their husbands. Most panchayats are willing to turn a blind eye to this situation as long as the girl does not belong to the scheduled castes or tribes. Hooda says, "The situation is so desperate that boys are willing to marry girls from any caste be it kumhar, lohar or even from the backward class. They will not however marry into SC/ST families." Ram Ratri, a woman member of the Bhali panchayat adds, "Polygamy is common in Haryana and men will marry twice and thrice in order to get a male child. I won't be surprised if, due to the shortage of brides, families start reverting to the earlier practice of polyandry where one bride was shared by the male members of a family." Village elders are horrified at this trend. Balraj, a farmer, says, "With no jobs and no family responsibilities, young boys while their time away playing cards and boozing. We believe a boy gains adulthood at the age of 18. He must be married off by then. But these days, boys are entering their mid-30s and not finding a girl." Nineteen-year-old Om Prakash agrees, "We young people are completely disillusioned. We have no jobs, we have no land, we cannot get married -- what do we have to look forward to in our lives?" And indeed, walking through this village only serves to highlight this point. Groups of five and six boys sit around outside their homes playing cards or simply chatting. The 2001 census has already highlighted the adverse sex ratio in Haryana. Some of the worst-affected districts are Sonepat with an adverse girl-boy sex ratio of 783/1000, Rohtak with 796/1000, Ambala with 784/1000 and Kurukshetra with 770/1000. This is in the 0-6 age group. The overall sex ratio does not present a happy picture either. Census figures show that in Panchkula the ratio is 823/1000, Faridabad 839/1000, Rohtak 847/1000, Hissar 852/1000, Ambala 869-1000. Manisha, associate programme co-ordinator for the government-aided Population and Development Education Programme points out, "Having fewer women does not mean the premium on them increases. On the contrary, they are being subjected to much more violence and families are being forced to keep them cloistered inside their homes." She adds, "The two-child norm in the cities has only worsened the situation. In Haryana, most urban families want both their children to be boys and will keep aborting the girl-child till such time as they have two boys." InfoChange News & Features, February 2003
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