INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2010

OK, I realise that it's not International Women's Day.  The reason for re-posting this today is that someone in Google Buzz has hinted that I am not writing about Female Foeticide, often now called gendercide, which also covers other sorts of murder of women and girls, including, "honour" killings, inferior medical care for girls and women and the like.

In any case, I think it is a good thing to remind us all of this on-going evil at odd times, so here is a reminder.
********************************
My post from International Women's Day, 2009 (very slightly revised):

I was so very sincerely hoping that this year, I would be able to write a nice cheerful post about how much progress we have made in the last year regarding the most important women's issue in the Punjabi Sikh community. Unfortunately, this practice has spread to the Sikh Diaspora communities, as well.  Will we ever learn, I wonder?!

I am referring, of course to the murdering of our daughters before they are born, what is called female foeticide. I have named this the Fourth Ghallugharah, and it is still in full swing. SHAME ON US!

No my dear brothers and sisters, I refuse to let up until this horror is ended!

Unfortunately, I can do nothing better than to reproduce my post from International Women's Day of last year, 2008.

Maybe next year...



There is a lovely little nursery rhyme that every child in the UK and Canada knows. I am not so sure about the children of India, so here is one version with lyrics:



 

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

 
As long as I have been expressing myself publicly (about 2 years - 4 years in 2010), I
have said that the most dangerous enemy we Sikhs have is not the
Indian government, the Deras or even the Hindus. It is no force from
outside our own community. It is ourselves. We are fast destroying
ourselves through one particular practice. I have here a little poem
I wrote about that. It unites IWD and our self-destructive
tendencies.



Tinkle, tinkle, little boy,
Bring your parents so much joy.
You're their diamond, you're their pearl,
They're so glad you aren't a girl.

Punjab practice straight from hell.
Very soon its evil tell.




You are looking for a wife,
Someone who will share your life.
Not a woman to be found,
Rotting foetus in the ground.


Guru's teaching has been taught,
But its meaning never sought.
Daughter is a gift from God,
Not a dead, decaying clod.


Without woman, there's no life,
No more children, no more wife.
Guru's teachings die off now,
Go and worship sacred cow.



Tinkle, tinkle, little boy,
Bring your parents so much joy.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, 2008 2009!!!!




WHY TRY TO FIT IN?
YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT! 

International Women's Day - 2009

I was so very sincerely hoping that this year, I would be able to write a nice cheerful post about how much progress we have made in the last year regarding the most important women's issue in the Punjabi Sikh community. (Here I speak not of the nonPunjabi Sikh community; they have their own problems, fortunately not this particular one.)

I am referring, of course to the murdering of our daughters before they are born, what is called female foeticide. I have named this the Fourth Ghallugharah, and it is still in full swing. SHAME ON US!

No my dear brothers and sisters, I refuse to let up until this horror is ended!


****************************************************

Unfortunately, I can do nothing better than to reproduce my post from International Women's Day of last year, 2008.

Maybe next year...



There is a lovely little nursery rhyme that every child in the UK and Canada knows. I am not so sure about the children of India, so I reproduce it here: (If you'd like to hear the melody go to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.)
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!


As long as I have been expressing myself publicly (about 2 years), I
have said that the most dangerous enemy we Sikhs have is not the
Indian government, the Deras or even the Hindus. It is no force from
outside our own community. It is ourselves. We are fast destroying
ourselves through one particular practice. I have here a little poem
I wrote about that. It unites IWD and our self-destructive
tendencies.



Tinkle, tinkle, little boy,
Bring your parents so much joy.
You're their diamond, you're their pearl,
They're so glad you aren't a girl.

Punjab practice straight from hell.
Very soon its evil tell.




You are looking for a wife,
Someone who will share your life.
Not a woman to be found,
Rotting foetus in the ground.


Guru's teaching has been taught,
But its meaning never sought.
Daughter is a gift from God,
Not a dead, decaying clod.


Without woman, there's no life,
No more children, no more wife.
Guru's teachings die off now,
Go and worship sacred cow.



Tinkle, tinkle, little boy,
Bring your parents so much joy.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, 2008 2009!!!!




WHY TRY TO FIT IN?
YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT!

SHAME AND PROGRESS

I have lectured you long and hard about the evil of female foeticide. Today, no lectures, just two articles and a few pictures.

First the Shame (from The Sikh Times):

Sikhs gave women equality but still abort female babies

Whilst the initiative to have a National Day to save Girl Child is to
be applauded, one cannot help but be saddened that today's modern
Sikhs who were given equality for women over 500 years ago should
have to be reminded of their evil actions.

In the last decade of 10 million girls have been aborted, shamefully
the ratio of girl boy is declining in Punjab the home for Sikh is
declining as we speak.

Even though the practices of scans that are to determine the sex of
the child are illegal*, they still are able to perform these activities openly.

Some Sikh media even today carry adverts encouraging parents to have
scans that allow the parents to know what the sex of their unborn child is.

And if it is a girl then the parents without a second thought visit
an abortion clinic and this baby just becomes another statistic.

A school in Punjab organised a rally where students and Teachers of
Govt. High School Machhli Kalan, District Mohali in Punjab, took part
in a rally in favour of the girls rights on the eve of National Day
to save girl child.

Boys and Girls carrying banners and posters about girls rights,
condemning girl feticide and other discrimination related to girls,
took out procession the village streets. They were raising slogans to
protect girls right.

Villagers curiously viewed, supported and praised the initiative of the school.
>
Indian Govt. decided to observe 24th January as National Day to save
Girl Child as 2000 girl feticide take place daily.

*illegal in India only. Legal in Canada, UK, USA, Australia and elsewhere where abortion-on-demand is legal

And the Progress: from Tribune India

Residents of Daad village vow to boycott 'kuri maars'
Mahesh Sharma

Mandi Ahmedgarh, January 9, 2009
The age-old method of social boycott as punishment will now be adopted by residents of Daad village, who today took a lead in fighting a battle against female foeticide.

The villagers, in a function organised by the Guru Gobind Singh Circle, today vowed to socially boycott those supporting female foeticide in any form.

After taking the vow, the villagers announced to boycott families forcing their women carrying the female foetus to terminate pregnancies and their facilitators on the conclusion of a seminar held at Gurdwara Sangat Patti Daad today.

Sarpanch Gurdev Singh presided over the seminar and Satnam Singh Sallopuri, director, Youth Services of the organisation, was the chief guest.

Addressing the gathering, various speakers regretted that a large number of families had been going for termination of pregnancies by exploiting medical technologies which were invented for knowing disorders of foetuses.

Members of the elite class, including physicians, were among the facilitators of sinners better known as "kuri maars" (daughter killers), rued the speakers. Though there was a provision for punishment for violators of the PNDT Act, the administration had failed to implement the act in letter and spirit.
>

According to Dr Varinder Singh, director, Bhai Gurdas Archives and Research wing, and Dr Pushpinder Singh, the organisation had decided to involve office-bearers and activists of other social and religious organisations so that the evil of female foeticide could be eradicated from the root.

Claiming that residents of this part of Malwa were enthusiastic to curb the menace, Varinder asserted that identification and isolation of the sinners was the need of the hour.

The organisation has drafted an extensive programme for educating masses in general and Sikhs in particular about the deleterious effects of gender imbalance.

Besides organising seminars at public places, special teams of experts will arrange workshops for couples and their parents separately.

Note: I gleaned these pictures from various sources. None appeared in the original articles.

END THE GENOCIDE IN PUNJAB NOW!!

We can stop it. In fact we are the only ones who can stop it - since we are the perpetrators. What we are doing to our preborn girl-children is as outrageous, as atrocious as what outsiders are doing to the children of Gaza. I have spent most of my day responding to people who are outraged at the pictures I posted of those dead children in Gaza. I wish I had such graphic pictures of our own murdered children to post. I do not. However, I promise I will find them and post them if this nonsense doesn't stop!

Aren't you yet getting tired of my harping on this subject? I am tired of it. I assure you, I think about it much more often than I write about it. One day, horrible, graphic pictures of dead and bloody children in Gaza. Now today, our own little girls. Again.

And it is us. You and I, the educated Sikhs, the ones who use computers and the Internet. We cannot blame this on illiterate, uneducated villagers who "don't know any better" and who "cannot afford a daughter." No, friends, my sisters and brothers, this is us! While I would not classify myself as affluent in North America, in Punjab, I would be considered both affluent and educated. Let me add that this is not only in Punjab. There are growing gender imbalances among us in Canada, as well. I cannot even begin to express my shame.

Here is my latest up dated picture of Anupreet Kaur, who recently turned 3. She looks deep in thought in this picture. I wonder what she's looking about. What do little, three year old girls think in these odd moments? Who could possibly resist such innocence and purity, such charm? I guess it is us. (I promise, I will continue to show you these delightful pictures if you stop this slaughter.)

There is only one way short of killing me to shut me up.

STOP THE MURDER OF OUR PREBORN GIRLS!!

END THE FOURTH GHALUGHARA TODAY!!!

Here is the story, published in many locations around the Web. How can the world take the much publicised social conscience of us Sikhs seriously, while we continue this slaughter of our own innocent children?

Gender imbalance highest among India's affluent: Harvard study

New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS) A baby girl is still unwanted in many Indian homes. What's more, the sex ratio imbalance is highest among the rich and the educated, says a study by the Harvard School of Public Health in the US.

In India, where families have traditionally preferred son, the male-female ratio increases with the level of education. The odds of having a boy compared to a girl is 25 percent higher in houses where the head of the family has completed schooling.


'We found that households where the head of the house has completed schooling had an increased ratio of having a male child compared to houses with heads receiving no formal education,' S.V. Subramanian, lead author of the study released last month, told IANS.


The male-female ratio also increases with income, the study found. Higher income groups are 14 percent more likely to prefer a boy to a girl while in the poorer sections the preference may be just four percent more.


'Urban areas also reported higher sex imbalance as the odds of having a boy are 11 percent higher in cities compared to seven percent in rural areas,' Subramanian said.


The researchers used a nationally representative, population-based sample of household survey data provided by the Indian National Sample Survey Organisation (INSSO) for five recent years: 2004/05, 1999/2000, 1993/94, 1987/88 and 1983. The INSSO survey covered the whole of the India except for a few inaccessible and difficult pockets.


It also reveals that the introduction of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act 1994 (PNDT) to check misuse of technology in this field has failed to correct the imbalance in the sex ratio.


'The sex ratio clearly signifies that the PNDT Act failed to check sex imbalance as the odds of having a boy increased to 10 percent in the period following the implementation of the Act. The odds of having a boy were seven percent in the pre-PNDT period,' Subramanian said.


There are notable variations among states. Punjab continues to be the state where the odds of having a boy increased to 37 percent compared to a girl. Karnataka has the lowest percentage with the odds of having a boy one percent higher than a girl.


According to Subramanian, a positive association between socio-economic status and sex imbalance is paradoxical given that the affluent class has been consistently associated with improved health and other well-being outcomes.


'The combined effect of persistent and intense son preference, along with increasing affordability and accessibility to technologies for sex determination, however, makes the concentration of male infants among the rich somewhat counter-intuitive,' the study found.


A higher incidence of giving dowry to the bride in marriage and prevailing inheritance practices favouring sons, both more common among high-income groups, are key motivations for an intense preference for sons among them.


'Meanwhile, a son preference norm could simply be dormant among low income groups, as they do not possess sufficient resources to practise discrimination,' the study said.


'For instance, low-income households, with reduced access to technologies available for foetal sex detection, may be less able to participate in the activities of foetal sex detection followed by selective abortion.'

Posted by Indian Daily News at 3:40

THE FOURTH GHALUGHARA

Ghalughara - Great bloodshed, a holocaust.

Three Ghalugharas are recorded in Sikh history,

(i) in 1746 about 10,000 Sikhs were murdered by the Mughal government forces. It’s called Chhota (small) Ghalughara.

(ii) Wada (large) Ghalughara took place in 1762 when Ahmed Shah suddenly took Sikhs in Malwa moving with children, women, and old people to the dry region. He murdered about 20,000 – 30,000 of them.

(iii) Under the orders of Indira Gandhi, Indian army attacked Golden Temple, Amritsar in June of 1984 and murdered 5,000 – 7,000 Sikhs visiting the sacred place in memory of the martyrdom of Guru Arjun Dev.

You can check out Chotta Ghalughara and Wadda Ghalughara at the links at Skhiwiki - or you can do your own websearch, if you are so inclined. (I hope you are; Sikh history is both fascinating and inspiring!)

Theeja Ghalughara (also called the Bluestar Massacre or Operation Bluestar) has been extensively covered in this blog and elsewhere, with many links already provided. Just click on Bluestar Massacre and you'll find enough information to boggle the mind.

So now we have three holocausts, mass murders of innocent Sikhs, attacks from outside forces who were hostile to Sikhs and would, frankly, like to wipe us off the face of the earth. "Attempted genocide" might be a polite term for these atrocities.

Most Sikhs - I hope - are aware of these incidents in our history.

What about the Fouth Ghalughara?

The nature of this holocaust is quite different from the first three. It is not an attack by forces hostile to us Sikhs. The killers here have no interest in destroying the Sikh people, in fact, many profess their love of Sikhi and the Sikhs. This mass killing does not come from any enemy outside at all! Yet the numbers of innocent deaths is many times that of those killed in the first three ghalugharas combined. Untold lakhs of our people have been brutally murdered, virtually unnoticed both by ourselves and by the world.

You know what I am referring to.

Take a look at this little Sikh girl.

Picture removed at family's request.

Picture any cute little girl.

She is a real little girl. Her name is Anupreet Kaur and she is short of two years old. She is the cousin of a dear friend of mine. Isn't she adorable? Don't you find a smile on your face as you look at her? She has that irresistible something common to all little girls everywhere, the reason that they say that "little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse."

She is one of the survivors. Her parents love her and cherish her. Her cute and naughty antics keeps her whole family laughing and in chardi kala. She is their beloved daughter, as I am the beloved daughter of my family.

But how many little girls has Vaheguru sent to our families only to be slaughtered as unwanted, a social and financial drag on our families? Why are our hearts not breaking as we look at our dead daughters?

feeling triumphant you must be
not letting me see daylight..
a little bundle of joy i was
pulsating with life within you
did it not hurt you, me being torn
from within you with sharp edged instruments?
did your heart not bleed for snapping all ties with your own flesh and blood....
you sealed my fate and branded me unwanted
poor me turned into a lifeless mass of flesh
dragged by stray dogs or dumped in dingy well
to rot along with so many like me
did i deserve that???
i thought i was a daughter OR am i just a female foetus"....
from lavender

Right now, I am only briefly going to mention the very practical outcomes of the practice of female foeticide, such as the shortage of marriageable girls, resulting in the further commoditisation of women and even the practice of forced polyandry (a woman having more than one husband). Right now I am more interested in touching your heart than in putting forth logical arguments.
Just look at little Anupreet Kaur one more time and let yourself feel the joy of her existence.


She is my profile picture this month and the cause she represents - an end to female foeticide - is my highlighted Sikh issue for this month of September 2008.

I confess it pains me to know that this post will be picked up with search words "female foeticide." This issue is the greatest shame of the Sikh people at this time in our history. Nothing could ever make me ashamed of being a Sikh of the Guru/s, but this hurts deeply. I know I will be asked about the gender equality our Sikhi teaches. I am asking for trouble, I know, but this issue has to be addressed and RESOLVED.
Let us remain in chardi kala. That way we CAN resolve this and all our other issues.

International Women's Day 2008

There is a lovely little nursery rhyme that every child in the UK and Canada knows. I am not so sure about the children of India, so I reproduce it here:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!




As long as I have been expressing myself publicly (about 2 years), I
have said that the most dangerous enemy we Sikhs have is not the
Indian government, the Deras or even the Hindus. It is no force from
outside our own community. It is ourselves. We are fast destroying
ourselves through one particular practice. I have here a little poem
I wrote about that. It unites IWD and our self-destructive
tendencies.



Tinkle, tinkle, little boy,
Bring your parents so much joy.
You're their diamond, you're their pearl,
They're so glad you aren't a girl.



Punjab practice straight from hell.
Very soon its evil tell.




You are looking for a wife,
Someone who will share your life.
Not a woman to be found,
Rotting foetus in the ground.


Guru's teaching has been taught,
But its meaning never sought.
Daughter is a gift from God,
Not a dead, decaying clod.


Without woman, there's no life,
No more children, no more wife.
Guru's teachings die off now,
Go and worship sacred cow.



Tinkle, tinkle, little boy,
Bring your parents so much joy.

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, 2008!!!




WHY TRY TO FIT IN?
YOU WERE BORN TO STAND OUT!

Female Foeticide - An Addition

We all know this, don't we? But I thought it might be useful to quote directly from the Sikh Reht Maryada (English translation) at the SGPC Website: Section 4, Chapter X, Article XVI:

l. A Sikh should not kill his daughter; nor should he maintain any
relationship with a killer of daughter.

See my earlier post about female foeticide - the murder of our daughters in their mothers' womb.

Being Sikh - Female Foeticide

I posted this a few days ago in the Gurbani Learning Zone, a Yahoo! group. The subject was female foeticide, in other words, the murder of our daughters, our little girls while still in the womb:

I humbly ask you to consider the following:

Forgive me for being simplistic, but does our Guru not teach gender
equality?

Does our Guru not condemn the killing of girls, in fact any unnecessary
killing, but specifically, in the strongest terms, the killing of our daughters?

And also, is dowry not forbidden?

As I see it, all we have to do is follow the teachings of our own religion,
i.e., stop being hypocritical, and the problem will solve itself.

How long will the killing of the unborn daughter go on? Until we obey what
our Gurus teach.

Please forgive me for being so blunt and simplistic. And I'm sorry if any
Sikh finds this offensive, more sorry than words can express.

Harinder Kaur, Seattle (They insist on whole name and location)

To date, no one has answered. I cannot preach or hold myself above other people. Anyone who reads this blog or my sometimes - 2 blog knows that I am well-aware of at least some of my faults and I have not led an exemplary life as a Sikh or simply as a human being.

But this issue seems so clear and basic and unequivocal: it is wrong to kill innocent human beings. How can we hold ourselves up as spiritual, moral people when we murder our own children without blinking an eye - just because they are girls. Need we be reminded that without the baby girl there will be no woman, and without woman...we all know this passage written by Guru Nanak Dev.

This scourge is not only immoral, it is suicidal to us as a nation. If we keep this up, the Indian government, the RSS and our other enemies won't need any genocidal actions or libelous campaigns against us. We'll just disappear. And the deaths of all our shaheeds will have been in vain!

Think about it.