1st Diamond Jubilee lecture series
D.R. Kaarthikeyan, Advisor, Law-Human Rights Corporate Affairs, and former Director of CBI, delivering a lecture at Nirmala College for Women in the city on Tuesday. Status of women is not just about equal opportunities and equal rights. It is even as basic as being allowed to be born. There are many States in India where the girl child is not allowed to be born, D.R.Kaarthikeyan, Advisor, Law-Human Rights Corporate Affairs, and former Director of CBI, said here on Tuesday. He was addressing students of Nirmala College for Women at the first Diamond Jubilee lecture series of the college on “Violence to Women”. Though the national ratio of men and women was 1000:927, some states had a ratio as low as 1000:800. “This is not because girls are not being conceived. But, because of female foeticide and infanticide,” Mr. Kaarthikeyan said. He said it was a big shame on the nation if its women were not respected and given the rights that were due. “Though ‘Sati’, child marriage and other such evils have become illegal, they are still rampant in some parts of the country.
End of poverty, ignorance, diseases and inequality, that were envisaged as signs of an independent India by the Father of the Nation, have still not materialised. Hence, India has still not become independent in the true sense of the word,” he said. He warned that if women were not looked after , they would beget children with low birth weight who would end up malnourished. “Such children will become liabilities to the nation.” He said material progress alone was not a sign of a peaceful nation. “We are looking at medical tourism in a big way when our children are dying due to preventable and curable diseases,” he pointed out.
