I have some great household help- there is a housekeeper, called S Aunty, a nanny for my son, Pushpa and a maid for the cleaning- Lakshmi and of course our chauffer who has been with us since my son was 4 months old. One morning my housekeeper tells me that Lakshmi is pregnant. I was horrified. Lakshmi and her husband live on a monthly income of Rs4000/-.They have a daughter. They do not have a lavish life by any means but all their basic needs are taken care of .. food, clothes and a house to live in and education for their daughter who despite having two barely literate parents is a bright student. They cannot afford to bring up another child. I tried talking Lakshmi in to having an MTP or medical termination of pregnancy before it got to late. She seemed confused. She said she always wanted to have a son as he would look after her and her husband in old age. As this is how a large part of rural and significant part of urban India thinks, it was not really a shock to me. I thought Lakshmi was lucky to have an employer who is enlighted and kind enough to help her to get rid of her unwanted pregnancy. I spoke to a few friends one of who is a doctor and made arrangements for her to go thru a MTP in a local hospital .I even offered to pay for a large part of the procedure.
In the meantime without my knowledge, Lakshmi got one of her relatives to take her to an illegal abortion clinic which did a sex determination test for her. The child to be was a female so she got herself aborted.
I was enraged when I got to know this.. how could I let this happen under my nose. A is all for having the clinic reported to a NGO or the police as sex determination tests are illegal in India. Sadly I don't have the courage not the determination to do this. I have a near perfect life and I don't want to disturb it. It has only made me realize the uphill tasks the government agencies have to curb such cases from proliferating.
No comments:
Post a Comment