Jaipur artist paints gory picture of female foeticide in Rajasthan

An artist in Jaipur has held a painting exhibition to highlight the widespread problem of female foeticide in the State despite it being considered a crime in the country.

by Lokendra Singh

Jaipur, July 31 : An artist in Jaipur has held a painting exhibition to highlight the widespread problem of female foeticide in the State despite it being considered a crime in the country.

Over 50 paintings and 3-D installations have been put up for public viewing in the 10-day painting exhibition "Teintua Daba Do" (strangulate the neck) organised at the Jawahar Kala Kendra, a well-known hub of art activities in Jaipur.

The ongoing 10-day exhibition is an attempt to highlight the social evil and create general awareness about killing of infants across the State.

The artist Chintan Upadhyay, says that he comes from a larger group, which is working towards creating awareness on the issue in rural areas, a place where the advent of portable ultrasound machines has only facilitated an easy way out for female foeticides.

Upadhyay said: "While working in rural areas, I realised this is a big problem and how it is engulfing the society and how attempts to maintain social status and societal pressures have pushed these problems."

The exhibited works have attracted a good response from the visitors who are all admiration for Upadhyay's work that presents female foeticide problem in a touching manner.

Sandeep Kumar, one of the visitors, said: "The manner in which he has portrayed the subject is very important, it has thrown a lot of light on the issue and is a truly inspiring exhibition."

The exhibition concludes on July 7.

Rajasthan has had a long history of female infanticide - of girls poisoned, suffocated, drowned or left to die.

In the early 19th century, British colonel Alexander Walker recorded his horror at seeing a mother drowning her newborn girl in a trough of milk in the state.

But now abortion of female foetuses or "female foeticide" has become common with easy availability of pre-natal sex tests. While such tests, costing as little as 600 rupees (12 dollars) are illegal, the law is regularly flouted and clinics offering sex tests flourish across the State.

The 2001 census indicated that people of Rajasthan preferred a boy child. From birth to six years of age, there were 909 girls for 1,000 boys, down from 916 girls a decade earlier.

But that national figure presented big local variations. In Punjab, for instance, there were 793 girls for 1,000 boys, down from 875 girls in 1991.

The global ratio is about 1,005 females to 1,000 males.

The Central government, alarmed by the number of "missing females", has announced plans to create a registry of all pregnancies to help curb widespread foeticide as also to reduce high infant mortality rate.

All medical tests that can be used to determine the sex of the child have been banned in India, due to incidents of these tests being used to get rid of unwanted female children before birth.

ANI