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Title: Media and Girl Child in Haryana – With a special Reference to Times of India and Dainik Bhaskar)
Last modified: 2011-06-05
Abstract
In 2004, Joan Holmes, President of The Hunger Project wrote that Ninety-three million women and girls are “missing” from the world population because of sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, malnutrition, abuse and neglect of girl children. She also said that it is nearly equivalent to all the deaths in all the wars of the 20th century which is supposed to be the
most violent century in human history. She called it a holocaust many times over. And in India, the situation is no better. According to 2001 Indian census, there are only 489 million women in the Indian Population and according to an estimate some 25 million women are missing from Indian population. Coming to Haryana, a North-Western state of India, the situation became shameful in December 2010, when its17 districts out of 21, showed a “substantial” decline in sex ratio over the last one year. The number of births of girls for every 1,000 boys fell from 852 births per 1,000 in 2009 to 838 births per 1,000 in 2010. UN’s latest figures show 986 women per 1000 men in the world. The Health Department of Haryana produced district-wise data complied till October 2010, in which a district called Rewari has the lowest sex ratio at 764/1000 and Ambala district has shown a maximum decline in the ratio over 2010. The figures are alarming and soon more alarm bells are expected when results of Indian census 2011 come out soon, before we meet at the conference. Young men are already finding it difficult to get a bride and they have started buying women from poorer states, causing other human right situations.
The time has come for media to intervene and do its role in helping a very important cause – the birth of girls- protecting them from the time when their little heart starts beating in their mothers’ wombs. The Times of India, a leading English daily of India has started a special coverage program to educate the masses on the significance of the girl child, calling it “BETI BACHAO- Save the Girl Child”. My paper deals with it and in contrast to English daily, I have chosen a Hindi newspaper, namely, Dainik Bhaskar for content analysis.
most violent century in human history. She called it a holocaust many times over. And in India, the situation is no better. According to 2001 Indian census, there are only 489 million women in the Indian Population and according to an estimate some 25 million women are missing from Indian population. Coming to Haryana, a North-Western state of India, the situation became shameful in December 2010, when its17 districts out of 21, showed a “substantial” decline in sex ratio over the last one year. The number of births of girls for every 1,000 boys fell from 852 births per 1,000 in 2009 to 838 births per 1,000 in 2010. UN’s latest figures show 986 women per 1000 men in the world. The Health Department of Haryana produced district-wise data complied till October 2010, in which a district called Rewari has the lowest sex ratio at 764/1000 and Ambala district has shown a maximum decline in the ratio over 2010. The figures are alarming and soon more alarm bells are expected when results of Indian census 2011 come out soon, before we meet at the conference. Young men are already finding it difficult to get a bride and they have started buying women from poorer states, causing other human right situations.
The time has come for media to intervene and do its role in helping a very important cause – the birth of girls- protecting them from the time when their little heart starts beating in their mothers’ wombs. The Times of India, a leading English daily of India has started a special coverage program to educate the masses on the significance of the girl child, calling it “BETI BACHAO- Save the Girl Child”. My paper deals with it and in contrast to English daily, I have chosen a Hindi newspaper, namely, Dainik Bhaskar for content analysis.