Advocacy workshop on Pre-Birth Sex Selective Elimination of Female Foetus

West Delhi - 25th July 2005

As part of the outreach program for school teachers of Delhi, intensive advocacy workshops were held in the South and the West zones of Delhi. These workshops were organized and hosted by Datamation Foundation, in support from the Population Foundation of India. The purpose was to bring the issue of Pre-birth Elimination of Females (PBEF) and Sex Selective abortion of female foetus in sharper focus and initiate intensive sensitizing of teachers and students, so that they act as a catalyst for bringing about change, spreading awareness and helping in bringing about attitudinal changes towards girls and gender discrimination. The first workshop was held for public schools of West Delhi at Guru Nanak Public school (Punjabi Bagh). The workshop saw the participation of ten teachers and twelve students from five schools of the area (Annex 1). The workshop was conducted by Brig. Y R Maindiratta, Mrs. Sarita Sharma and Ms. Divya Jain.

The workshop was developed into six sessions, the entire curriculum, and procedure being participatory and interactive, with simulated exercises, presentations, and group discussions. The participants were given rich background material to be able to get familiar with the issue. (Annex 2 – Concept paper)

Session 1 – Registration and inaugural session
At 9:40 a.m the workshop was inaugurated by Dr. Avtar Singh (Principal, Guru Nanak Public school) by lighting the lamp followed by a brief speech on the criticality of the issue. Brid. Maindiratta took over from here and briefed the participants about the campaign itself and the work Datamation Foundation is doing. A brief on the workshop goals and objectives was also spelt out (Annex 3). Prior to the commencement of the workshop, pre-workshop evaluation forms were distributed among the participants to gauge their understanding of the issue and their expectations from the workshop. The participants spent about 20-30 minutes in filling up the forms, after which a round of formal introductions of the participants began.

Session 2 – Current scenario
This activity was followed by a presentation by Brig. Maindiratta on the status report of the child sex ratio, followed by description of the child sex-ratio in the states of India in both high and low prosperity areas (state/town). Here he also went on to discuss the scenario in India prevailing for the last five years, in terms of drop in the sex ratio. He then moved on to discuss the Delhi specific pattern and elaborated the effects of this decrease in CSR and its impact on the society, especially on the Girl Child.

Session 3 – Simulation Activities – Exercise “Aap ke Vichar” and “Soch Vichaar”
A brief simulation activity was introduced here at about 10:40 a.m. This was a participatory exercise and each participant had to be an active player. It was also an energizer for the group and even worked as an ice-breaker. The purpose of this activity was to generate interest about the issue, and help the participants know each other, develop confidence and become a trustful team member of the group. What was required under this activity was that all participants had to write their views and stereo types on the issue of gender inequality on the chart paper and present it with a brief explanation to the group. This exercise was followed by another simulation activity – Soch Vichaar (Annex 4), and a simultaneous tea break. This activity started at around 11:15 a.m, whereby the participants were divided into three groups (each having both teachers and students). Each group was provided a chart paper to write up on CSR, Pre-birth elimination of female foetus and share their experiences of sex selective abortions either in their families or around them.

The activity that ended at about 12:00 p.m resulted in bringing about the main reasons and cause responsible for decline in CSR, its emergence and consequences, in sharper focus. The groups suggested ways about how they will spread awareness about campaign against pre-birth elimination of females and sex selective abortions. The group came up with some socio-cultural factors responsible for the practice of female foeticide and the declining CSR.
a) Obsession of having a boy / son demanding society
b) Dowry as a social evil
c) Last rites at the time of death to be performed by male/son
d) Carrying forward the family name
e) Family assets and wealth to be taken care by the male child

The three groups came up with some remedies to curb this menace. These were:
1) Increased awareness about the CSR
2) Pre-birth sex selection to be made a criminal offence
3) Increased awareness generation about gender equality
4) Sex education in schools to adolescents

Session 4 – Factors and solutions to the problem
Brig. Y R Maindiratta presented the various factors and solutions to the problem and explained the phenomenon of sex preferential (Annex 5). The presentation covered the following issues:
a) Gender discrimination
b) Child Sex Ratio of 10 most populous countries
c) Government policies and systems
This was a detailed presentation, a participatory one that led to discussions, generated a concerned interest among the participants, and helped in understanding the causes and consequences that leads to sex selective abortions, the policies made by the Government, its implication and the current CSR of India in respect to 10 most populous countries. In terms of remedies and implications of the problems, excellent responses came from both the teachers and students. The participants also shared with us some real life case studies. This session ended at about 1:00 p.m with a lunch break.

Session 5 – Website demo
After the lunch break the participants gathered back for a demonstration on the website www.indiafemalefoeticide.org by Mrs. Sarita Sharma and Ms. Divya Jain. During this the participants were enriched with the various features of the portal and the content carried on in each page. The participants were given a chance to surf the website and its various features.

Session 6 – Medico-legal aspects
At 2:30 p.m a 15 minutes session on the medico-legal aspects of the issue was conducted by Ms. Divya Jain. She laid out the most critical points of the PCPNDT Act, brining to light the do’s and don’ts under the act.

This was followed by gauging feedback from the participants via post-workshop evaluation forms. After the collection of the forms the workshop was brought to a close at about 3:15 p.m with a brief lecture by Brid. Maindiratta on Pre-birth Elimination of Females and how the participants can be active members of the campaign against pre-birth elimination of females.

Conclusion / Analysis
As per the pre and post workshop forms collected from the participants, evaluation and analysis was done by the Datamation team. The following pre-workshop analysis is based on the responses of ten teachers and five students. As per teacher’s feedback, they expected the workshop to cover issues related to awareness generation about female foeticide, how to carry forward this message and curb this menace in a manner that it permeates all strata of society, and implications of medical termination. While six out of ten participants were aware of the practice of female foeticide and infanticide, none were able to clearly explain ‘what is meant by CSR’. Only five participants were able to name the districts in Delhi which have the lowest CSR. Seven out of ten participants were able to tell the full form of PNDT. While all participants new the commonly used technique for PBEF (MTP), five of the participants thought that abortion was not a legalized act. Knowledge about where to report cases of female foeticide and the organizations working towards it was very poor. Students’ responses highlighted that they were not well aware of this practice, and had little or no idea about the scale and extent of it. However, on the other hand the simulation activities highlighted that the students were well aware of the existing gender inequality in the society and its causes and implications.

Post-workshop feedback was gathered from eight teachers (as two had to leave to take classes). Six out of eight participants rated the workshop content and coverage, and conduct and delivery to be excellent, and almost all held that both time management and administrative arrangements were good. Both the teachers and students suggested that such workshops should be held more often, and should see the participation of greater number of schools and students. Marked improvement was seen in teachers’ responses towards the issue, scale and extent of female foeticide. Participants sounded more confident in terms of being able to file complaints against such instances of sex selection and female foeticide. Also, they seemed well informed about the medico-legal aspects of the practice after the workshop. Both the teachers and students pledged to spread the message in their own special way.