Dancing for the rights of women in India

[Guest guest]

Dancing for the rights of women in India

 

IANS

 

NEW DELHI: While watching a dancer making a point about the rights of

women, 15-year-old Rubina Singh made a statement that shocked those

sitting next to her in the audience.

 

"When the husband beats her (the dancer) up she will be set right,"

Rubina chuckled -- ironically revealing the very mindset that

Tuesday's dance performance here wanted to battle.

 

The programme at the LTG auditorium was a dance choreography

competition to spread awareness against female foeticide in India.

 

Said an organiser, Bijailakshmi Nanda: "This is the biggest problem

in India, people are reluctant to accept change." The event was

organised by the Campaign Against Female Foeticide (CAFF).

 

Incidentally, Tuesday saw several cultural programmes in the Indian

capital on the rights of women.

 

In the evening, at Kamani auditorium, Bharatanatyam danseuse Rama

Vaidyanathan danced to an English poem, "I know, so I am", about

women's reproductive rights.

 

Said Meera Khanna, writer and social activist who authored the

poem: "A woman is devoid of the right to life itself. She lives in an

environment of son preference.This can be seen in the numerous

cases of female foeticide and infanticide." With new technology,

methods have become more sophisticated, yet the end remains the same,

say experts.

 

"In the last 30 years, ready availability of technology has made

early sex determination and abortion of female foetuses easier," said

Francois Farah, the representative of the United Nations Population

Fund (UNFPA) in India that organised the Bharatanatyam performance.

 

He added that while in 1991 the Indian sex ratio, or number of

females per 1,000 males, was 947, the number had dropped to an

alarming low of 927 in 2001.

 

While foeticide robs the girl child of her basic right to life, the

woman who could have borne her is also devoid of her right to

reproduce, say activists.

 

Said Vaidyanathan, "A woman is asked to abort again and again until

she carries a boy. She doesn't even have the right to say no."

 

Working towards changing mindsets Tuesday were choreographies by CAFF

volunteers, students from colleges like Miranda House and schools

like Amity International and those behind Vaidyanathan's performance.

 

Vaidyanathan said, "It feels so great to be using dance to address

such an important issue. After all, dance is not just about looking

good and dressing up.

 

"It is a powerful medium and we dancers have a great responsibility."