Sex Selecyive Abortion In India

Half a million girls aborted every year in India

By Habon Mohamed

Researchers in India and Canada declared earlier this year that selection and selective abortion was resulting in the loss of 500,000girl births a year. (The lancet ,2006). Although this outraged the Indian government who described the findings as inaccurate and out of date, it sparked renewed concern about the growing use of sex selective abortions to satisfy parental preferences for sons.

India banned gender selection and selective abortion in 1994 but despite this, it is estimated that 10 million female foetuses may have been terminated in India in the last 20 years. There are now 36 million more men than women in India. (The Lancet, 2006). So why are girls not wanted and what are are the future implications of this unbalanced gender ratio for the country?

The key socioeconomic reasons behind the circumstances of women’s excess mortality in India and other Asian countries have been debated by academics since the 1980s. Caldwell presumed that increased payments of dowry cost were leading to the deterioration in the status of women. (Caldwel, 1982). The bride’s family according to Indian convention bears the major cost of the wedding. The amount of dowry given is determined by the groom’s caste, his earnings potential and the distinct needs of his family. Therefore the wealth of a bride is irrelevant in the determination of the dowry amount. The female child thus becomes an economic drain on her family.

Das Gupta highlighted the patrilineal organisation of the kinship system in Punjab, a northern state with the worst gender ratio in India. In order words inheritance happens through the male line. Women are thus not allowed to inherit or own land. The resources flow is always from the woman’s father to the man’s family. (Das Gupta, 1987).

In addition, the agrarian culture still prevalent in many parts of India remains sex specific because boys are considered to be an extra pair of hands. In this scenario men physical labour counts for more and as a result they receive better wages.

These cultural norms operating in the country reinforce the concept that sons are a financial asset by contrast to girls. A boy inherits and retains the wealth of his family and his prospective wife, gains a dowry and brings home higher wages. They are considered to be a way of securing parents care in old age.

It is within the concept mentioned above that we need to consider sex selective abortion. India since 1971 has allowed abortion on medical and social grounds and amniocentesis was introduced in1975 by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. (Radhika, 1994). The later was primarily intended to detect foetus abnormalities. The introduction of a new technology that makes it possible to determine the sex of a baby while it is still in the womb in combination with a preference for sons have proved to be lethal for girls. In one hospital in June 1976 to June 1977, 700 individuals sought prenatal sex determination. Of these foetuses, 250 were determined to be male and 450 were female. While all the male foetuses were kept to term, 430 out of the 450 female foetuses were aborted (Miller, 1985).

It was obvious that couples were increasingly abusing the technology and as a result the Indian government first limited the use of amniocenteses and later completely banned the application of the technology for gender selection and selective abortion.

However concentration of the government and policy makers on technology and the consequent legislative restriction on sex selective abortion, have not been successful in combating sex preference and have resulted in richer women seeking alternative institutes to terminate their pregnancies while poorer women opted for traditional methods of abortions. The latter are often unsafe and are contributing to increased maternal deaths.

A series of reports entitled Murder in the Womb carried for India’s Sahara Samay television uncovered 100 doctors both in the public and private sector who were prepared to carry out illegal abortions of female foetuses. The average cost of the procedure is thousands of rupees (around Ð'Ј30) and today many clinics can offer this service using high quality ultrasound machines to determine the sex of the foetus. (The Lancet, 2006). Abortion is therefore вЂ?big business’ in India and the market for the equipments to carry out gender selection are in high demand. Americans, Koreans and more recently Chinese multinational companies realising this booming market are now making and selling scanners to Indians. Campaigners like Sabu George claims that 16 million ultrasound scanners have been sold to illegal clinics since the introduction of the ban and indirectly lead to millions of girls being aborted.

Chen and D’Souza argue sex preference operates at various stages and does not start or stop before birth. Research carried by the authors in rural Bangladesh has revealed that on average females between the ages of 0-4 years received 14 percent fewer calories than males in the same age cohort. (D’Souza, and Chen, 1981). They also discovered that male children are brought to the hospital more frequently than female children. Restricted access to healthcare and lower food allocation within the household thus contribute to higher mortality of girls in South East Asia.

The demographic change resulting from mass female foeticide has obvious social and economic consequences and naturally, is the focus of many academics and policy makers.

Academics Valerie M Hudson and Andrea Den Boer put forward a dire future in which major social unrest will be inevitable. In their 2004 book entitled �Bare branches’ they argue that a generation of men unable to find wives has emerged in eight different Asian countries. China and India are said to be the worst with China sex ratio currently standing at 120 boys for 100 girls. (The Lancet, 2006). These men are often poor and uneducated and thus lack control and power in the marriage market. Hudson and Den Boer further comment b saying that when economies turn bad, these men are likely to generate crime and violence.

“It will