Women and Child Development Minister, Krishna Tirath
launched the campaign against malnutrition in India and Aamir Khan was roped in
to be the ambassador of this much needed campaign in India. Aamir Khan with his deliberative and emphatic
style of speech (I think he is the next Vajpayee in the making where the pause
between two words and thoughts will compete with eternity) and record for all
do-good things is lending his image to this noble deed.
So far so good.
I saw the first of the print advertisements exhorting us not
to have our girls married earlier than 18, as they are not mentally or physically
ready to bear the load of that very obese institution called marriage and
consequently will be in danger of giving birth to a child who very likely will
suffer from malnutrition. I read and pledged and then hedged! Pledging was
easy, why would I wish that my daughter marries under-18? Good for cricket but
bad for everything else. And the reason has very little to do with malnutrition
of a life that is a consequence of entering into matrimony when she is not yet
18years of age. I read and re-read but
could not connect the dots between the cause and results. Marriage is out of question because of
several reasons like- I do not want her doing the juggling act so early in life
that takes her eyes away from her education, her career, her choices, her
finances, her development and that’s right, her well-being. Visually, I find the wordings of this
advertisement all wrong - ‘A girl of 18
years of age isn’t physically and mentally ready to become a mother. If such a girl should have a baby, the child
is at risk of malnutrition’. Excellent
for identifying the girl child as the root cause of malnutrition. A pat on the back for declaring girls under
18 as incapable mentally or physically……(to become a mother). Boys are fully developed since birth! Aha I forger,
perhaps it’s a girl who has crossed that golden cusp of 18 years that has given
birth to such a boy! I find this ad
skewed.
Besides holding girls responsible for the biggest fallout of
poverty- malnutrition, her well-being has completely been ignored even while
keeping her at the core of the campaign- “I won’t marry a girl who is below 18
years of age so that……our child will be protected from malnutrition, the girl
be damned’, (well the last three words
are a thought bubble) The man who is shown with a steely resolve in his eyes
and hands crossed over his chest looks to be at least 35 years of age. Good going Govt of India, but then such clumsiness
was expected from you.
Oh also I forgot all about the Lady Panchayat (straight from
hell-hole of HIndi serial on TV, something to do with female infanticide) one
hand on her hip and other brandishing a stick (to drive the rats away) looking
sternly at the readers forbidding them to marry away their girl children. By the by, I have seen such Panchayat only on
TV. In reality all the female panchayats
or corporators are trembling, bumbling, skittish doves under veils (figurative)
fronting for their husbands with political aspirations, who have no say except
to say aye aye to the males behind them.
Now back to malnutrition.
How is malnutrition defined? When one does not get enough food or food that is of such low quality
that it impacts health and mortality of the person consuming it. Close to 42.5 per cent of Indian children suffer from
malnutrition which means that every second child is not getting enough food
or being deprived of life-sustaining food. It means that millions of people in
India are still living below poverty levels that they cannot afford to buy at
food that has at least 2000 calories in it- 4 Idlis or the same number of
Rotis, a couple of bowls of Dal and maybe (when the going is good) a half a
bowl of sabzi. Though we have surplus food, it does not reach the one who needs it more
and this is the problem. This can be attributed to corruption and
mismanagement, which does not allow the right distribution of food. In various
villages government has opened subsidized food shops that get fund from the
Public Distribution System (PDS). These are supposed to give 35 kg of rice or
grain in a month to every family that is living below the officially declared
poverty line. But most of the times these do not contain enough supply to meet
the demand. Grains rotting away in poorly built silos being destroyed by
rain and pests while our poor live out a life of indignity in pursuit of food.
In the above I do not see the satanic hand of an
under-age girl who has given birth to a child straight into the crib of
malnutrition. Public distribution
system- underage girl, corruption- underage girl, public storage system-
underage girl, draught management system- underage girl, lack of employment
with minimum wages-underage girl . I
want to see the connection but alas sir I fail to do so and I am not an
underage girl, I am a good sized 40 year-old woman. This advertisement inadvertently reduces the
role of women reproduction at the wrong age, holds them directly responsible,
medically to giving birth to children who might not survive. How about holding the partners/ spouses as
well for not providing for decent maternity and post-delivery medical care, for
providing two square meals for the mother and child in question? I know this is all twisted logic but then the
best I can deal with this twisted advertisement under the guide of a benevolent
social deed is to strike it with twisted reasoning.
Preventing child marriages is going to prevent
malnutrition is like saying Manmohan Singh is responsible for all child
marriages, after all he is the head of the family and nothing in the family
happens without either the head being aware of it or his tacit approval or that
he is merely the titular head while someone else pulls his strings!
Sheee! Ms. Krishna Tirath, hai hai Govt of India, we
need a better idea, sound reason and at the very least better editing.
