Response to gender based violence

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, India has come up with a "Protocols and Guidelines - medico legal care for survivors/ victims of Sexual Violence" in 2014 to provide coordinated response to gender based violence that includes sexual violence, domestic violence, special provisions for care of LGBT, children and disabled.

But to my dismay, the protocols and guidelines has not been adopted by many states in India. The health sector response needs to be strengthened with trained professionals, designated space for medico-legal examination of survivors and supplies. Above all privacy and confidentiality of the survivors need to be maintained and ensured, although many challanges are still to be resolved.

The protocols and guidelines is available in the MoHFW's website. 

Say no to sex selection

Son preference is one of the most evident manifestations of gender discrimination in our society. Sex- selection has become a rampant phenomenon and the technologies that are misused for this very purpose are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The use of advanced medical science and technology has made sexual discrimination and the elimination of female babies even before birth an invisible deed.

The earlier more crude and visible forms of eliminating females such as choking infants on rice husk have given way to using technology to select sperms carrying the Y chromosome in order to be able to conceive a male child! The widespread practice of sex determination brings to fore a lot of issues linked to it. Medical science and technology are being misuse by medical practitioners who provide such options for people at large. They posses the skill and expertise to use these technologies and are also economically benefiting from them by their misuse. By indulging in such practice they not only violate the law but also the professions own code of ethics and conduct, which also puts forth sex selection as a concern of medical ethics.

Most importantly, sex selection is a breach of human rights as far as women are concerned. The selective elimination of women even before birth is a breach of their right to equality and existence.