Netaji’s daughter deplores female infanticide

Delivering a lecture to commemorate the 74th anniversary of the Proclamation of Netaji Subhas Bose’s Provisional Government of Free India, here last night, Bose Pfaff said true emancipation of women is not only to their advantage, but also to the advantage of the population as a whole. 

Quoting Netaji, she said, “If you educate a man you educate one person, if you educate a woman you educate a whole family”. “If you look at the gender-specific composition of the population - more than half are men - something is seriously wrong. Girls are killed in India, Pakistan and other countries. Because this pattern does not occur naturally! If women’s education and women’s rights are improved this will also contribute towards population control,” she said. She noted that in spite of a fair track record in many walks of life, “India continues to be wrought by many overwhelming problems that need to be addressed”. Bose Pfaff said in order to improve the standard of living, India has to ensure economic growth. 

At the same time this has to be done with greater concern for the environment than what industrialised countries in the West and East have done. She said resources have to be found that enable a steady investment in the education of the masses. A further inroad into the improvement of public health has to be achieved. 

“This is partly a matter of investment in health care, but more even an improvement in hygiene and the environment. Clean water is a must for everyone,” she said. While Bose Pfaff said she is convinced of corruption being one of the most crippling problems of the country, she confessed she did not have the “faintest idea” how to address it. Indian High Commissioner to the UK, Y K Sinha said India has a Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) who is “incorruptible”. “He has taken a missionary zeal to clean up India,” the envoy said.