Meet Our GEMS: Zubeda Hamid

Breaking the Silence

by Meera Srikant

Zubeda Hamid is a correspondent with The Hindu covering health and disability rights. She shares in her own words why she wanted to be a part of the Prajnya Campaign.

Why is this issue important to you?

This issue of FGM is important to me primarily because it is largely unknown. The silence around it allows it to continue, as it has, for years together. I think it is important to break that silence by initiating discussions and creating awareness about the fact that it happens in order to support those who are already trying to stop it and to hopefully put pressure on religious leaders to ban it.

What is it you feel most strongly about?

I feel strongly about it because FGM is a violation of a child's body. It is inflicted upon girls in an attempt to control their sexuality -- to keep them 'within their limits' so to speak. The fact that it happens in a well educated, prosperous community says something about how we, as a society, continue to feel the need to keep women in their place -- either in a misplaced desire to 'protect' them or because it is thought to be -- or men think it is -- better for them. No child's body should be mutilated in this manner. The scars, both physical and mental can last for years.

Tell us about your activity for Prajnya campaign and what you hope to do with it?

I wrote a blog post about FGM in India, looking at causes, consequences and placing the campaign against it in the context of a larger, global campaign. I'm hoping this creates dialogue and discussion about an issue that is largely hidden. I'm also hoping that if more people, both men and women, talk about this, some pressure will be created for this practice to be stopped.

Three things you would suggest to keep these individual actions going.

I think the issue of FGM needs more visibility. A documentary made recently helped draw some attention towards it. Getting college students, especially film students interested in looking at issues of gender violence could be one step. Helping support online and other campaigns could be another. Portraying certain issues as narratives that could reach out to a lot more people may also help.

Tamil Nadu Girl Child Protection Scheme

Girl Child Protection Scheme in Tamil Nadu: An Appraisal

Sharada Srinivasan , Arjun S Bedi

Economic and Political Weekly, VOL 44 No. 48 November 28 - December 04, 2009

The Girl Child Protection Scheme in Tamil Nadu was introduced in 1992; surveys and data analysis show that between the late 1990s and 2002-03, daughter elimination has declined sharply. However, a close look at the scheme reveals that its implementation is not targeted at districts with a high prevalence of female infanticide, that it assumes only poor families are anti-daughters, and given the sterilisation condition, that families with only daughters and strong son preference are not likely to volunteer. Also, to what extent it has altered attitudes towards daughters – one of its aims – is unclear.

(Limited access to full-text at http://epw.in/epw/uploads/articles/14181.pdf)

In the news: Infanticide in Tamil Nadu

From The Times of India, 9 October 2009, Madurai

Infanticide in Tamil Nadu: Twin girls killed

MADURAI: In a shocking case of female infanticide in southern Tamil Nadu, a woman allegedly murdered one of her newborn twins two weeks ago by slitting the infant's throat, while her mother strangled the other. Both the women were arrested in Thoothukudi district on Thursday.

The police said the women were disappointed that both the babies were girls. They feared the family would incur a huge expenditure in their medical treatment, since they were born premature.

According to police, Revathy (21), wife of an autodriver in Thoothukudi district, was eight months pregnant. She went into labour on September 23 and was rushed to the district government hospital where she delivered the twins. The babies weighed about two kg each.

The doctors kept the newborns in an incubator and the babies were brought out only for breast-feeding. According to the police, on Thursday morning, Revathy and her mother Thennila (45), had taken the infants for feeding after informing the nurse. After being with the infants for a while, they rushed back to the incubator room and created a commotion, demanding to know what the nursing staff had done to the babies, as they were unconscious.

The hospital's chief maternity officer Lourdes Alpino, who checked the babies, found traces of blood on one of them and became suspicious and informed the police.

The mother and grandmother later reportedly confessed to having killed the infants.