| "Spend Rs 500, save Rs 500,000", read a writing on the rail-side wall somewhere in Punjab, harping on the expense of aborting a female foetus vis-à-vis the cost of dowry at the time of marriage of a daughter. The gender discrimination in the form of prenatal sex selection and abortion of female foetuses has reached an alarming proportion today and a study said over the last two decades about 10 million female foetuses might have been selectively terminated following ultrasound tests in the country. Fewer daughters have been born to couples who have not yet had a boy, according to the report published in the Lancet. Researchers studied data on female fertility from a continuing Indian national survey of six million people in 11 million households. Analysing information about 133,738 births, the researchers found that the deficit in the number of girls born as second children was more than twice as great among educated mothers than among illiterate ones, the report said. "Infanticide has reduced," said official of India's National Commission for Women (NCW). "In fact foeticide has brought down infanticide," she rued. And Shiresh Sheth of Mumbai's Breach Candy Hospital, in a commentary accompanying the study, endorsed this view. "Female infanticide of the past is refined and honed to a fine skill in this modern guise," he said. Sheth noted that in India’s patriarchal society, daughters are regarded as a "liability", as she would belong to the family of her future husband. The result of the quest for sons was clear in the 2001 census. From the ages of birth to six, there were 927 girls for 1,000 boys, down from 945 girls a decade earlier.
| But that national figure masked big local variations. In Punjab, for instance, there were 793 girls for 1,000 boys, down from 875 girls in 1991. The global ratio is about 1,005 females to 1,000 males. Based on the natural gender ratio from other countries, they estimated that 136 million to 138 million girls should have been born in 1997 in India. However, 131 million were reported, the Lancet said. "We conservatively estimate that prenatal sex determination and selective abortion accounts for 0.5 million missing girls yearly," the study said. "If this practice has been common for most of the past two decades since access to ultrasound became widespread, then a figure of 10 million missing female births would not be unreasonable," it said. Ultrasound, used to check a foetus’ health, can also find out its gender. "It's an unholy alliance of tradition and technology. Ultrasound was not meant for sex selection," said demographer Ashish Bose. "It's a quick way for greedy doctors to make money." It is not just the poor who go in for this inhuman act, but even the affluent families pay doctors for sex determination and selection process. Gynaecologist Dr Prabhavati Shah feared that some among the medical fraternity could be misusing ultra-sonography as a money-spinning tool for sex-determination leading to rampant illegal female foeticide. "Estimates suggest at least 5 million foeticide operations are conducted every year in India as against an official assessment of 2 million cases," Dr Shah lamented. In her hospital there are procedures for pre-selection of gender before pregnancy which costs approximately Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000. The procedure separates X-bearing sperm (female) from the Y-bearing sperm (male). The separation technique produces an enriched sperm sample and increases the chances for the choice of gender of the baby. Gender pre-selection is not complete without an ethical review, Dr Shah observed. Some question the appropriateness of couples trying to artificially choose one sex child over another. "It is better to know and try to have a boy child instead of having a girl foetus aborted," she argued. Since 1994, the country has banned foetal sex determination and medical termination of pregnancy on the basis of a foetus’ gender. "You may shout from the rooftop, but it is not going to affect those who do not want a girl," quipped a senior official at the NCW, who preferred anonymity. |
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